Van Halen’s winning track record with cover songs can be traced back to its 1978 diamond-platinum debut. The ambitious approach, which shows off the band’s diversity, creativity, flair, and fun, takes precedence like never before on Diver Down. Featuring five covers, three of which became radio staples, the album sprung from the band’s desire to remain relevant while taking a breather after four massively successful records and their respective tours. More than four million later, suffice it to say Diver Down achieved its goal. Sourced from the original analog tapes and housed in mini-LPstyle gatefold packaging, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD presents the 1982 album in definitive sound. All the traits you associate with Van Halen — dynamic energy, distinctive tonalities, vivid detail, rhythmic attack, tongue-in-cheek playfulness, midrange punch, throttling intensity — emerge with involving presence and stunning clarity. Diver Down can here be experienced with unparalleled balance, definition, and, if you so choose with your volume settings, concert-like solidity, scope, and decibel levels. The advanced degrees of separation, imaging, and fullness will grant you a fresh perspective on a record that began under the auspices of a one-off single. Diver down, temperature up28