Time To Get Manly 56: Van Halen - Fair Warning

I randomly ran across a list of what Esquire magazine claims are "The 75 Albums Every Man Should Own." In this series of posts, I'll explore these manly, manly sounds.

Van Halen - Fair Warning

To supplement my very rudimentary Van Halen knowledge, I consulted a Van Halen expert about this selection. He was puzzled over the choice of Fair Warning over better-known Van Halen albums like, for instance, 5150. I have a sneaking suspicion that Esquire picked this record specifically because no list of "must have" albums for men would be complete without at least one record featuring unironic cowbell. The whole "Eddie Van Halen is a guitar God" thing probably factored in somewhere too...