GranolaBox

Eagles: Meandering Road out of Eden

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from the Eagles’ new release “Long Road Out of Eden.” I was reasonably sure from the title that I would get a good dose of anti-imperialism from Don Henley, my favorite angry white California Muslim. I wanted at least a glimpse of greatness that is “Hotel California” and maybe some tasty west coast country rock as only the Eagles could deliver back in the day.

The title cut packs the biggest anti-war punch. Beyond the title itself, it’s full of allusions to the Roman Empire, condemnation of wealth and greed, hypocrisy… it’s all there. The a cappella “No More Walks in the Woods” has great signature Eagles harmonies underscoring the environmental travesty that is the Bush administration. “Frail Grasp of the Big Picture” is Henley’s biggest stab at the press since “Dirty Laundry.” “Business as Usual” sets a musical score to the Republican agenda.

There’s some pretty good non-political stuff too and again, it’s mostly Henley’s. “How Long” is a great Henley-Frey romp with an “Already Gone” feel and “Too Busy Being Fabulous” is a great somebody done Don wrong song as only he can write them.

The album delivers in terms of Don Henley’s political punch, but the rest of the double CD leaves much to be desired. There’s a lot of songs on the CD that just suck. Joe Walsh’s contributions have his signature slide guitar, but the rest leaves much to be desired. On some of the ballads it’s difficult to tell the difference between Glenn Frey and Timothy B. Schmidt, but the songs are so awful that it doesn’t really matter.

If I think of the album as a Don Henley album with the Eagles as backup, and skip through most of the non-Henley tracks I can minimally feed the Eagles jones that has built up since 1979’s “The Long Run”, which was their last full studio release. I think we called them records then and they were made of vinyl.

Here are some of the tastier stabs that the album takes at the American empire.

“Weaving down the American highway
Through the litter and the wreckage and the cultural junk
Bloated with entitlement, loaded on propaganda
And now we’re driving dazed and drunk.”
From “Long Road out of Eden”

“Monuments to arrogance reach for the sky
Our better nature’s buried in the rubble
We got the prettiest White House that money can buy
Sitting up there in that beltway bubble
When “el jefe” talks about our freedom
This is what he really means…
Business as usual”
from “Business as Usual”

“Well, ain’t it a shame
That our short little memories
Never seem to learn
The message of history
We keep makin’ the same mistakes
Over and over and over and over again
And then we wonder why
We’re in the shape we’re in”
From “Frail Grasp of the Big Picture”

Technorati Tags: Long Road Out of Eden, Don Henley, Hotel California, Bush administration