Maps of Music

Balance (1995)

Where the lyrics of Balance take you, and where it was really made.

Fans took the androgynous boy on the cover for Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang, but he was actually from Denver.

Key places

Most of the album recorded at 5150 Studios (1995)

Recording site TRS Studios — Most of Balance was recorded at Eddie's 5150 Studios in Studio City. This point is placed at the city-center level, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Lead vocals recorded in Vancouver (1995)

Recording site Little Mountain Sound Studios — Five lead vocal tracks were recorded in Vancouver, where producer Bruce Fairbairn lived. This point is placed at the city-center level, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Cover photographed in Wexler's Hollywood studio (1995)

Album cover Motown Recording Studios — The androgynous boy on the cover was photographed in Wexler's Hollywood studio. This point is placed at the city-center level, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Balance: tenth studio album by American rock band Van Halen
• Released January 24, 1995, by Warner Bros. Records
• Last of the band's four studio albums with Sammy Hagar as lead singer
• Last Van Halen album to feature bassist Michael Anthony in its entirety
• Features a more serious tone than other Van Halen albums and three instrumentals
• Reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 in February 1995
• Remastered by Donn Landee for The Collection II, released October 6, 2023
• Expanded edition released August 15, 2025, with live performances from Wembley in 1995

Background

• Released amid internal fighting between Hagar and the Van Halen brothers
• Band worked eight-hour days for three months recording the album
• Eddie Van Halen's newfound sobriety contributed to the mystical overtones of the opening track
• Original title of the album was The Seventh Seal
• Title changed to Balance, which Alex Van Halen described as being about the turmoil and changes around the band
• Turmoil included the recent death of long-time manager Ed Leffler
• Second incarnation of Van Halen broke up after the recording and the Ambulance Tour

Recording

• Most of the album was recorded at Eddie's 5150 Studios in Studio City
• Five lead vocal tracks were recorded in Vancouver, where producer Bruce Fairbairn resided
• Mixed by Mike Fraser
• Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York, by George Marino

Cover

• Photographer Glen Wexler created the cover images
• The androgynous boy was photographed in Wexler's Hollywood studio
• Fans mistakenly considered the boy to be Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen
• The images were combined with a miniature landscape for the background
• An alternate cover was used for the Japanese release

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Van Halen was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972.
• The brothers Alex (b. 1953) and Eddie Van Halen (b. 1955) were born in Amsterdam, moved to Pasadena in 1962, and began playing together in the 1960s.
• The band went through the names Broken Combs, Trojan Rubber Co, Genesis, and Mammoth before becoming Van Halen in 1973.
• David Lee Roth joined as lead vocalist in 1972 and Michael Anthony joined on bass in 1974.

Members

• Eddie Van Halen (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Alex Van Halen (drums), David Lee Roth (lead vocals, 1974–1985), Michael Anthony (bass, 1974–2006).
• Sammy Hagar replaced Roth in 1985 and Gary Cherone replaced Hagar in 1996.
• Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's son, replaced Anthony on bass in 2006.

Career

• The self-titled debut album (1978) reached No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and was later certified Diamond by the RIAA.
• The album 1984 (1984) produced 'Jump', the band's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
• With Hagar, the band released four U.S. number-one albums, including 5150 (1986) and OU812 (1988).
• Eddie Van Halen died of cancer on October 6, 2020; Wolfgang later confirmed the band had ended.
• The band has sold more than 80 million records worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviews for the album were mixed across many music critics
• Rolling Stone's Paul Evans praised Eddie Van Halen's riffs and called Alex Van Halen's snare the band's secret weapon
• NME's Johnny Cigarettes dismissed the more serious direction and wished for a return to the band's earlier sound
• Melody Maker's Andrew Mueller said the band had become a flimsy pretext for Eddie Van Halen's guitar work
• Select's Clark Collis wrote that the album did little to remedy the band's humourless image after David Lee Roth's departure
• Entertainment Weekly's Deborah Frost said the songs sounded as clumsily grafted together as the cover art
• Centre Daily Times critic Howard Cohen called the album a step up from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the album tries to open up the Van Hagar formula
• The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) dismissed the album
• Consequence writer Steven Ovadia called it a shame that this was Hagar's last album with Van Halen
• Ovadia wrote that Eddie Van Halen balanced keyboard sounds and guitar within a single performance

Records

• Balance reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 in February 1995
• First week sales of 295,000 units gave the band its first debut at No. 1 in 1995
• Opening-week tally was 21% higher than For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
• Reached number 8 on the UK Albums Chart, the band's first British Top 10 placing
• Reached triple platinum status on May 12, 2004, with more than three million copies sold in the US
• The title track of the album, The Seventh Seal, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Hagar said during the Balance Tour show in Pensacola, Florida, that Take Me Back (Déjà Vu) was a true story.
• The song Take Me Back (Déjà Vu) uses a riff Eddie had used on an older song, making it the third known song on the album based on an older idea.
• The instrumental Strung Out was reportedly recorded by Eddie in the early 1980s on a piano at pianist Marvin Hamlisch's beach house.
• Eddie said the instrumental Doin' Time was a little intro for the next song, though it has been described as a drum solo.
• Balance was released as a remastered set in The Collection II alongside an extra disc of eight rarities from this era.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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