The Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden

Eagles Long Road Out Of Eden returns after 28 years to two basic staples of previous Eagles' work: fantastic soaring harmonies and multiple lead singers taking their turn. This band proceeds with a Don Felder replacement named Stuart Smith and he does as best as anyone could in filling such impossible shoes as Felder.

The two disc album is both similar and dissimilar; similar in tonal quality (How Long is impeccably produced and played; likewish It's Your World Now with its spanish feel and elegant trumpet, dissimilar in that Disc 1 is preoccupied thematically with failed love while Disc 2 is preoccupied with the hypocrisy of form not matching substance in politics and war.

Gems That Match/Surpass Their Previous Work: Waiting In The Weeds, Long Road Out Of Eden, It's Your World Now, Last Good Time In Town, "Do Something" (original piece of work from Timothy)

Disc 1 does contain a bit of paradox; several tracks in a row, "What Do I Do With My Heart", "I Dont Want To Hear Anymore", ex., contain catchy tunes and great instrumentation but lyrically are repetitious and rather simplistic. Stacked in a row like this one would have no idea that the theme of this album would change on Disc 2 to the title track where Walsh finally arrives with his power chords and sizzling lead solos, and Henley's brilliant voice, turning of a phrase, and astute cultural observations are welcome.

Smith is a wonderful guitarist; yet this album does miss Felder's harder edge and particular unmistakable stylings that surface throughout One Of These Nights through The Long Run.

Frey finally gets an album closer with this band and it is a poignant, personal, and prescient conclusion to his studio work with the Eagles.

There is no bad song in this album. All songs are brilliant and I haven't taken the CD out of my player. I love it. Best Eagles album ever.

Great album! Great price too. The Eagles sound as good (or better) as ever!

Long Road Out Of Eden rocks a little less fast than other Eagles albums but offers up some absolute gems. The first disc is more aligned with country rock sounds, the second is distinctly experimental in its nature but you can hear echoes of past Eagles' triumphs in all songs with very few exceptions.

Disc 1 kicks off with the a capella No More Walks In The Woods, a plaintive, and yet haunting complaint about the loss of wooded areas and its implications. On this short song you hear the Eagles' harmonies that you have missed for so long and this provides just a taste of what is to come. Then the single "How Long" flies the country rock banner. It's an enjoyable listen if not exactly lyrically challenging.

Busy being fabulous is a wry observation of lifestyles and how they can interfere with family life. It's a great tune. What do I do with my heart and I don't want to hear any more are both beautiful, beautiful songs of love, the second sung beautifully by Timothy Schmit. Guilty of the crime is a slow burning but ultimately fun Joe Walsh boogie.

Fast Company harks back to Life in the fast lane in terms of people with superficial lifestyles and it is an interesting attempt at a funky sound, standing apart from all of the others on disc 1.

Do Something is a gorgeous song with a moral, advising the listening to do something in the face of adversity, not just accept it or behave as though it did not matter.

No More Cloudy Days and You are not alone are two very pleasant Glenn Frey songs.

The new Eagles classic on disc 1 is Waiting in the Weeds, a song (and the longest on disc 1) about unrequited love and a man waiting for his turn to come around again. It is mid tempo but the lyrics and images that it conveys are amazing. If finding love is just a dance/Proximity and chance/You will excuse me if I skip the masquerade/ and /And I imagine sunlight in your hair/You're at the County Fair/You're holding hands and laughing/And now the Ferris Wheel has stopped/You're swinging on the top/Suspended there with him/And he's the darling of the chic/The flavour of the week is melting down your pretty summer dress. And I've been waiting in the weeds/Waiting for the summer rain to fall upon the wild birds scattering the seeds/Answering the calling of the tides eternal tune/The phases of the moon/The chambers of the heart, the egg and dart/A small gray spider spinning in the dark/In spite of all the times the web is torn apart. Absolutely beautiful lyrics and imagery.

Disc 2:

Long Road out of Eden, the 10 minute title cut, is wistful and yearning and offers cutting comment on the situation in Iraq. It's very similar in structure to "Hotel California" but slower. It contrasts the beauty of nature with the horror that man is committing in the Middle East and the lifestyles of the people back home in America with those of their fighters. It offers some very beautiful instrumental breaks and definitely has a dreamy quality to it. I dreamed there was no war quickly follows and is a beautiful instrumental, which could have been longer. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Somebody is one of the fastest rockers in the set but none of the tracks on LROE go faster than mid tempo rockers. It also has a link with Witchy Woman from "Eagles" with its dark imagery.

There's a jack o' lantern moon in the midnight sky/somebody's gonna live/somebody's gonna die/down in the graveyard on that old tombstone/there's a big black crow and it's calling you home/. The song is all about the feeling that you get when you think someone is following you and happily embraces paranoia.

Frail grasp on the big picture passes comment on an uneven political situation but also on everyday occurrences in life. Humanity is found wanting in all cases. It's a nice Henley composition with some interesting and caustic lyrics: We keep making the same mistakes over and over again/Then we wonder why we're in the shape we're in/ and /It's a frail grasp on the big picture/Heaven help us/All waiting for that miracle elixir/I don't wonder anymore

Center of the Universe is introduced by twinkling guitars and builds slowly into something that is reminiscent of something that the Beatles may have done. It is a sound very unlike the Eagles but not unpleasant for all that.

It's your world now can be interpreted on many levels. It has a lush, almost fairground sound at times, and concerns passing the baton from one generation to the next. You can imagine mothers and fathers having this discussion with their children or you may decide to interpret it as the Eagles bowing out, leaving the world stage and handing over the reins to the next generation of bands.

All in all a wonderful new 2-disc collection of songs and deserving of being number one in so many countries around the world at the current time.