Eagles Long Road Out Of Eden

By 2007, it had been nearly 30 years since the Eagles had released a new album. So it was a surprise when the band announced 2007’s Long Road Out of Eden, a sprawling 20-track double album of new material. Back in the 1970s, Don Henley and Glenn Frey wrote their biggest songs at each other’s Hollywood homes after nights out on the town. This time, things were different: Frey worked out of his West LA studio, while Henley worked in Malibu, with the two emailing their contributions to one another—a set-up that allowed them to avoid the inevitable in-person friction. Their longtime producer, Bill Szymczyk, returned to serve as "a mediator, a consigliere, a ringmaster", while Henley and Frey wrote about more serious topics, like the death of the American dream. Just listen to the title track, a menacing, 10-minute Henley epic about greedy oil men. Then there’s “Business as Usual”, in which Henley—an outspoken environmentalist—sings about how “nature’s buried in the rubble”. Frey’s “I Dreamed There Was No War”, meanwhile, is a spare, meditative electric guitar instrumental that proves the Eagles don’t even have to sing to record a classic. They do sing spectacularly, though: Henley’s “Waiting in the Weeds” is a dark, end-of-summer ballad wrapped in Beach Boys-style harmonies. And J.D. Souther, who co-wrote Eagles hits like “Heartache Tonight”, contributes “How Long”, a throwback windows-down anthem sung by Henley and Frey. What’s most notable about Long Road Out of Eden, though, is the way it lets the band embrace their age—and allows them to acknowledge how much they’ve grown since their early days. On “Busy Being Fabulous”, Henley delivers a swaggering soul ballad about a lover who’s traded her loyalty for late nights and bright lights. And Joe Walsh’s “Last Good Time in Town” is a delightful update on his party classic “Life’s Been Good”—except now, Walsh has new ways of getting thrills: “Lately I’ve been stayin’ at home/Workin’ the crosswords/Turn off the phone.”