After the Thrill is Gone.

The Eagles and I have a weird relationship. The first concert I ever went to was on their first tour so I felt a connection. Over the years though, as their commercial successes piled up, their social commentary reeked with hypocrisy as they enjoyed the same excesses they critiqued. But those songs! I remained a fan in spite of myself.  

“Long Road out of Eden” is their first studio album in twenty eight years but picks up where it’s predecessor, the similarly titled “The Long Run” left off. An ambitious, slickly produced, sprawling two cd set with references to cell phones and SUV’s the only clues that we ever exited the seventies. The dichotomy of writing songs about consumerism and greed while cutting a deal with Wal-Mart to be the exclusive seller of  this release also harkens back to their late seventies contradictions. (It can also be purchased at Eaglesband.com if you’ve got a problem with that.) But those songs! How can they still be this good? 

Don Henley and Glenn Frey continue their Stephen Stills/Neil Young-like comradery   trading off vocals and alternating their compositions while Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt can be counted on to emulate their caricatures (party dude and soft rock schlockmeister.) Rockers (“Business as Usual”, “Somebody”), funk and soul (“Busy Being Fabulous”, “Fast Company”) and rootsy Americana (“No More Walks in the Woods”, “How Long”) all are touchstones to other Eagles songs, not surprising considering how many classics they have produced. But when the title cut winds its way through ten minutes of a soldier’s Middle East musings there’s no turning back. After almost thirty years, coldly calculated beats nothing at all. Welcome back guys.   

 Listen for songs all this week from The Eagles album “The Long Road Out of Eden” during Paul Shugrue’s new music show on Hampton Roads Public Radio 89.5 WHRV-FM. Monday through Thursday from 7 pm to 9 pm, Saturday afternoon from 1 pm to 5pm and on-demand at www.whrv.org/outofthebox.