Eagles "Long Road Out of Eden" review

The tracks with Leadon, Felder and Meisner are good.

 

This definitely should have been cut down to 1 CD. There is some major filler on here - like the puff ballads "What Do I Do With My Heart" and "No More Cloudy Days." It isn't always a good idea to compare current work with past glories, but some of the former ballads from the past are superior lyrically and musically in every way ("Wasted Time," "Best Of My Love" and "Sad Cafe" for example). "Fast Company" is a total embarrassment. The Frey instrumental "I Dreamed There Was No War" may be the best track on the album. Wasn't there supposed to be one or two Joe Walsh rock songs on here? There are certainly some OK performances on this new album, but there is also some very weak results as well. One CD would have been a better representation.

 

Allmusic Guide Excerpt: (Although it's generally favorable)

Nearly every one of their classic rock radio staples has a doppelgänger here, as the J.D. Souther-written "How Long" recalls "Take It Easy," the stiff funk of "Frail Grasp on the Big Picture" echoes back to the clenched riffs of "Life in the Fast Lane," and while perhaps these aren't exact replicas, there's no denying it's possible to hear echoes of everything from "Lyin' Eyes" and "Desperado" to "Life in the Fast Lane," and Timothy B. Schmit turns Paul Carrack's "I Don't Want to Hear Anymore" into a soft rock gem to stand alongside his own "I Can't Tell You Why." It's all calculated, all designed to hearken back to their past and keep the customer satisfied, but yet it often manages to avoid sounding crass, as the songs are usually strong and the sound is right, capturing the group's peaceful, easy harmonies and Joe Walsh's guitar growl in equal measure. The Eagles burrow so deeply into their classic sound that they sound utterly disconnected from modern times, no matter how hard Don Henley strives to say something, anything about the wretched state of the world on "Long Road Out of Eden," "Frail Grasp on the Big Picture," and "Business as Usual." These tunes are riddled with 21st century imagery, but sonically they play as companions to Henley's brooding end-of-the-'80s hit The End of the Innocence, both in their heavy-handed sobriety and deliberate pace and their big-budget production. That trio fits neatly into the second disc of Long Road Out of Eden, which generally feels stuck in the late '80s, as Walsh spends seven minutes grooving on "Last Good Time in Town" as if he were a Southwestern Jimmy Buffett with a worldbeat penchant, Glenn Frey sings Jack Tempchin and John Brannen's "Somebody" as if it were a sedated, cheerful "Smuggler's Blues," and the whole thing feels polished with outdated synthesizers.

 

Count me in as those like it.Maybe not "classic",but surely worth the wait IMHO.

 

You forgot "Memory Almost Full" and "Magic". To quote someone,"It ain't yesterday,Slick".

 

For comparison

How Long 1972 by the original lineup
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=W79ymycplrs

How Long 2007 by the current lineup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtCmIYpfUHY

 

I bought this today and have listened to disc 1 pretty solidly. Its definitely a grower. Filler? Maybe, but not definitely.

I am glad they did it. Its not embarrassing to the legacy. Is it Hotel California part II? No. Its 4 guys in their 50s doing what they do best.

That's good enough for me

 

One * star review in the Guardian

Self-importance is a given in the world of soft rock, but the Eagles' double-disc comeback propels musical smugness to previously inconceivable proportions. Their first new material in 28 years, disc one sounds like the band's Desperado years left out in the rain - damp, shrunken and fetid, with songs such as Guilty of the Crime and Fast Company giving out as much spark as a dying novelty lighter. Then comes disc two. This is the band's big political statement, a 48-minute embarrassment of lyrical cliches, yowling harmonies and masturbatory axe solos. It's hard to know whether ironic passages such as the hymnal middle-eight of Frail Grasp on the Big Picture ("And we pray to our Lord/ Who we know is American - he presides over football games!") will inspire riots among rednecks, or breed Born in the USA-style misunderstandings. At least the album provides a thousand unintentional laughs as it takes awfulness to new heights.

 

An idiotic review worthy of a partisan hack paper like The Guardian.

1. "yowling harmonies" is what exactly? I certainly don't hear any out of tune ones.

2. "masturbatory guitar solos." Yeah, there are some, and I don't hear any overindulgent or overlong ones. Joe Walsh plays great, and S. Smith plays with taste everywhere. If anything, they don't solo enough!

3. The irony on "Frail Grasp" seems very obvious and clearly intended. Leave it to the elitist, holier-than-thou Guardian to denigrate the mental capacity of a whole region/class of people.

 

Thats the first time i heard this song and between the two i think the new version is better. Of course its hard to compare live against a studio version , The Eagles sound good.

 

I've stayed away from this until I got to hear it for myself. Huge Eagles fan here.

I'm disappointed.

After hearing "How Long" I was jazzed...but the rest of the album simply does not compare. I'd say the only other track that grabbed me was "I Don't Want To Hear Any More".

And where the hell is Joe Walsh's talk box??? It's buried on at least one track, but that's about it. I really think "One Day At A Time" was vastly superior to either of the Walsh tracks that made it to the album.

Here's what I feel is missing...Felder's guitar, an outside producer (Szymczyk is credited as one of 4 co-producers, but come on now).

Here's what I feel needed to remain missing...Outside musicians, "end-of-the-world" lyrics ("Last Resort" and "Sad Cafe" nailed that...move on), too much filler.

This could be a *decent* one disc set. And I'd still have to swap in some of the bonus CD from last year.

I usually give a disc two or three shots before forming an opinion, and I will possibly change mine, but I really feel strongly about this after first listen.

 

And you wonder why newspapers are on their deathbed circulationwise? Utter drivel!:thumbsdn:

 

I haven't hear any masturbatory solos on Eagles music. Even the ones on Hotel California, which may be long, are as tasteful as they come.

 

I really wanted to like this 2 CD set. I really did. I was waiting for at least 1 or 2 stand out hits that would grab me and I would've accepted the rest of the lackluster songs.

It just seems as though these hugely talented forup of guys who together and separately have written soem of the best songs I've ever heard just weren't able to pull out 1 or 2 gems that would have brought in a whole new generation of listeners. Opportunity missed noted.

 

I've listened to both CD's three times now and there are about 5-6 songs that I like and will continue listening to. About the same number are so dreadful my ears will never suffer the indignity of hearing them again! My main disappointment is there is no "great" songs and in one year or more will I be listening to any of them anymore... probably not.

 

I'm not a huge Eagles fan, by any means, but a double disc for $12 seemed worth taking a chance on, especially when I heard the first single - which sounded great to me. However, when I heard the opening lines to track 6, my first thought was: When did Michael Jackson join the Eagles?

I was never a big fan of Schmidt's "I Can't Tell You Why", but his vocal on "I Don't Want To Hear Any More" makes "Say Say Say" sound like vintage punk...

 

"Masturbatory" is such a critic's cliche, and the idea of the "howling harmonies" is just misinformation. Regardless of the merits of Long Road Out of Eden, that's a badly-written review that should be ignored.

 

3 standouts for me;
"How Long"
"Busy Being Fabulous"
"Buisness As Usual".
The latter having a great sound as long as I block out the political lyrics.

 

As much as I have enjoyed the early Eagles (up to Hotel California) & Don, Glen, & Joe's solo work. The best I can say is that this new music is utterly forgettable and not worth the plastic & paper its made from.

The mastering is just plain awful. (passable, if you compare it to anything in the last 8 years) Its a loud, bright, mostly peak limited, & compressed mess if you ask me. I suppose will please the .mp3 crowd. I'd be willing to give it another listen if it was re'EQed and released on a couple of nice pieces of vinyl or DVD-A at 24/96 or better.

The playing is competent but, just plain boring. I'm not even going near the lyrics & political statement that's being presented.

The packaging: :thumbsdn: I feel like I could have done just as well myself on my computer at home.

just my .02...YMMV

 

Man, I really can't believe how many people hate this album.
My wife and I listened to it Tues. night (and she rarely likes to listen to music), and she loved it instantly. One of her least favorite songs was "How Long". I loved it! After being impressed by the first disc, we were blown away by the 2nd disc- Disc 2 could have been a stand-alone album. It's great! This is my favorite album of the year!! (and no, I am not a Wal-Mart spokesman)

It is one of the only "old guard" releases that haven't dissappointed me this year (John Fogerty is another). The long songs do not feel like forty minutes (Neil Young) and the sound is actually good (Bruce). And the people who complain about the packaging- Bruce's is worse. I wonder how many people would hate and trash "Magic" if Bruce had made a Wal-Mart-only deal?


James

 

I was at Wal Mart waiting while I had my tires rotated and I gave in a bought this album. I almost missed it on the shelf. The CD cover looked like one of those low budget relaxation CDs or one of those tribute albums with Eagles songs played by an all mandolin orchestra or something silly like that.

Anyway, I put in disc one and nearly fell asleep during the first track. Then I was woken up by a modern country/bluesy/indescript piece of crap song that I understand is the first single. Yikes, they were really out of ideas! "How Long" encompasses everything I absolutely despise about country music. The melody is boring and ordinary, it has a rockin' bluesy feel and it's boring. Did I mention how boring it was? Where's the invention here? Where's the creativity? Why do old men like that rockin' blues thing so much? I can only assume it's because they're out of ideas.

Virtually all of disc one is nonsense. I found myself fast forwarding through the intros to see if the songs had any guts. A few were actually interesting but most left me yawning. Are these really the same guys who did all that great music in the 70s?

It's not all bad. The good songs are nice. That's the only way I can say it, they're nice. Nothing is so creative it will alienate the average listeners and everything has a certain blandness about it. Still, there are some nice songs here. I did load about an album's worth of nice songs on my iPod. The rest should never be heard by anyone ever again.

Did you happen to notice the different tones of the mixes. "How Long" ( I must add at the mere mention of this song) is bright and punchy while the next song, "Fabulous" has a much darker tone. Listen to how much darker the snare is. "What Do I Do With My Heart" sounds pretty darn good to me while the next track, "Guilty Of The Crime" is extremely thin and almost shrill. Listen to all the EQ on the snare drum! The thin guitar tones probably don't help much either.

One final note, I'm glad to hear they didn't let the vocal levels get out of control. If I set vocals this far back I'd get a call the next day asking for a recalled mix with the vocals way up. I think Elliot did a nice job with the mixes. They aren't too compressed and the balances are nice (there's that word again). I have no idea the conditions he was working under but I bet there was some pretty heavy pressure not to mention the demanding nature of the band. I'd say he did an excellent job.

 

So, what one word would you use to sum up your response to the album?

 

A person who rarely listens to music...loved the new Eagles instantly.

Well there's a endorsement for ya.

 

That would have to be nice.

 

Okay... Let me clarify that for you. She rarely listens to new music because it's crap and it sounds like crap. I tried to get her to listen to the new Springsteen and she said "It's too loud- it's giving me a headache". We watch shows like "Saturday Night Live" and she sees "great" new artists like Spoon, who couldn't write a good song under gunpoint (and yes the Eagles use outside writers, I know) She flips around to "MTV Hits" and sees the great music on there....

Like a lot of people, she loved music in the 80's and early 90's, and then lost interest in buying and listening- because the times changed and her type of music wasn't popular anymore. She loves Air Supply and Chris De Burgh, but appearently they're not cool. Sue her for being a "girl".


James