Nov 16, 2007 02:44 PM
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Long Road Out Of Eden(LROE) 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 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 those 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 magnificently 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 listener 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 tide’s 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 midtempo 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.
