Editing OU812 (section)

==Critical reception==
{{Music ratings
|rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="atAllmusic">{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r20989|first=Stephen Thomas |last=Erlewine |access-date=June 28, 2011}}</ref>
|rev3 =''[[Martin Popoff|Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal]]''
|rev3Score = 6/10<ref name="martin" >{{cite book | last1 = Popoff | first1 = Martin | author-link1 = Martin Popoff | title = The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties | publisher = [[Collector's Guide Publishing]] | date = November 1, 2005 | location = [[Burlington, Ontario]], Canada | isbn = 978-1-894959-31-5 | page=385}}</ref>
|rev4 = ''[[Kerrang!]]''
|rev4Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="kerrang">{{cite magazine |title=Van Halen - 'OU812' |magazine=[[Kerrang!]] |date=4 June 1988 |last=Russell |first=Xavier |issue=190 }}</ref>
|rev5 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
|rev5score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="SkipperDan">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/ou812-19880630 |title=OU812 |publisher=Wenner Media |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=June 30, 1988 |access-date=October 10, 2011 |author=Fricke, David}}</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s]]''
|rev2score = C<ref name="SqueezeBox">{{cite web |url=http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=van+halen |title=CG: Van Halen |work=[[The Village Voice]] |access-date=October 10, 2011 |author=Christgau, Robert}}</ref>
}}
Reviews for ''OU812'' were initially mixed. [[Robert Christgau]] rated the album a C in ''[[The Village Voice]]'', which signifies "a record of clear professionalism or barely discernible inspiration, but not both." He noted that "trading Dave for Sammy sure wrecked their shot at [[Led Zeppelin|Led Zep]] of the '80s--master guitarist, signature vocalist, underrated rhythm section." However, he stated: "Eddie's obsessed with technique, Roth's contemptuous of technique, rhythm section's got enough technique and no klutz genius. But Sammy . . . like wow. If I can't claim the new boy owns them [...], you can't deny he defines them."<ref name="SqueezeBox" /> ''[[Rolling Stone]]''{{'}}s [[David Fricke]] rated the album three-and-a-half out of five stars. He said of "Source of Infection": "While Eddie Van Halen sprays you with a machine-gun succession of speed-metal-guitar arpeggios, Sammy Hagar sends out the party invitations with his usual savoir-faire — "Hey! All right! Whoo!" Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony, of course, take him at his word, shooting into hyper-beat space before you can say, 'Jump'." He noted that "Van Halen, contrary to purist grumbling, did not wimp out when Diamond Dave hit the bricks. Nor did the band go — ugh! — pop: the ''5150'' ladies' choice "[[Why Can't This Be Love]]" wasn't really a ballad; it was more like Big Rock Melancholia. In fact, all the ''5150''-model Van Halen did was replace one mighty mouth with another and trot out some hip, new songwriting tricks." Still, he stated that "the curve balls [...] don't always hit the strike zone. "Finish What Ya Started" is an unexpected turn into wheat-field-rock country." Despite this, he concluded that "maybe Eddie and company haven't been pushing the envelope, so to speak, far enough in terms of songwriting. But "Mine All Mine" is a good teaser for the future, the slow stuff is classy radio fare, and at its best, ''OU812'' is a veritable feast of great white rock & roll wow."<ref name="SkipperDan" /> Xavier Russell of ''[[Kerrang!]]'' was more enthusiastic and called ''OU812'' "loud, rude, dirty and very much a Van Halen album".<ref name="kerrang"/>

A retrospective review from [[AllMusic]]'s [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] was fairly positive. Erlewine stated that "when David Lee Roth fronted the band, almost everything that Van Halen did seemed easy &ndash; as big, boisterous, and raucous as an actual party &ndash; but Van Hagar makes good times seem like tough work here." Still, he stated that "the riffs are complicated, not catchy, the rhythms plod, they don't rock, and Sammy strains to inject some good times by singing too hard." However, he concluded that "if it isn't as good as ''[[Fair Warning (Van Halen album)|Fair Warning]]'' (even if it's nearly not as much fun), it's nevertheless the best showcase of the instrumental abilities of Van Hagar."<ref name="atAllmusic" /> Canadian journalist [[Martin Popoff]] defined ''OU812'' music as "cynical corporate rock" and found the album "over-produced and actually more commonplace" than its predecessor ''5150'', implying that "the philosophical soul and warmth" of Van Halen "evaporated when David Lee Roth packed it in."<ref name="martin" />

In a music magazine interview published a few years after the release of the album, Eddie Van Halen expressed his opinion that the record was not mixed as well as he would have liked: "Sonically it was shit."{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} Some criticism of the album noted the bass guitar parts are of a low level in the mix compared to the vocals and other instruments. There has been speculation that the thin presence of bass guitar in the mix may be related to the Van Halen brothers' rumored growing animosity towards bassist Michael Anthony. In later years, Anthony would be forced out of the band and his songwriting credits removed or altered.