Ranking Van Halen albums

I've got my juices flowing (ewww) about VH, so here are some random rankings:

Best Album



1.) 5150 - Great first album for Sammy. Revitalized the group. Sammy singing at his best.
Songs to enjoy: Summer Nights, Get Up, Best of Both Worlds

2.) 1984 - DLR peaked in this album, but he also went LSD (Lead Singer Disease) on the band. That's according to Eddie at least. Leaps up a notch or two for the Hot For Teacher video.
Songs to enjoy: Drop Dead Legs, Top Jimmy

3a.) Women and Children First - Really underrated and commercially unsuccessful. See 3b.
Songs to enjoy: Everybody Wants Some, In a Simple Rhyme
3b.) Fair Warning - So, VH made this album right after WaCF, and when I bought the tape (!) they were packaged together, making that tape a killer. These two albums together are #1. Not only did I wear the tape out, but I got in a car wreck listening to it.
Songs to Enjoy: Dirty Movies, So This is Love

4.) Van Halen - Very successful debut album and Eruption was groundbreaking. This album peaked at #19. Can you believe that?
Songs to Enjoy: Atomic Punk, Ice Cream Man

5.) OU812 - Van Halen's response to DLR's Eat 'em and Smile. This album was really hot during my prime high school years, so I listened to it quite a bit, doesn't quite hold up as well.
Songs to enjoy: Cabo Wabo, Black and Blue, A.F.U.

6.) Diver Down - VH had a ton of covers on this album, but man there were some cool songs on this album.
Songs to Enjoy: Cathedral, Little Guitars, and Big Bad Bill (of course)

7.) Van Halen II - Eddie is really good on this album. Pretty dark album for the guys, overall not great.
Songs to enjoy: Somebody Get Me A Doctor, Spanish Fly

8.) For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - Not much to say about this album, other than Right Now was kinda a phenomenon and a great track for the Delt video.
Songs to enjoy: Poundcake, 316

9.) Balance - whew, too much crappy instrumental. I did not like this album at all. I hardly listen to anything on this album anymore.
Song to enjoy: Amsterdam

10.) Van Halen III - I really shouldn't acknowledge this album, but I did buy it hoping for something. I really liked Extreme and thought Gary Cherone could hang with the band. He couldn't. For god's sake, Eddie sang on it.
Song to enjoy: Without You