Music Disc Reviews

That song's a good one, though, and a breakthrough of sorts for the band, which got through the Vietnam War without singing a word about it. Leading off Disc 2, the track stretches to an unprecedented 10 minutes (though with a long intro and outro, the song itself is only about 7 minutes long). A suitably ominous tune helps Henley frame the war as both an individual's nightmare and a national one, making the result as effective as the more gung-ho antiwar songs written lately by Neil Young and John Fogerty. None of the other tracks (except "I Dreamed There Was No War," an oddball instrumental) are quite as topical, but the same urgent mood is there on "Somebody," which is as obvious a hit single as the Eagles have ever recorded.

Because the two discs are practically separate albums - with the characteristic country and adult-pop material on the first CD and the more ambitious tracks on the second - Long Road isn't one of those double albums that should've been a single disc. This doesn't mean that every track is a winner, since a few are too-obvious rewrites of earlier group and solo hits. One of the prime offenders, "What Do I Do with My Heart," may as well have been called "The Second-Best of My Love." Walsh's second featured track, "Last Good Time in Town," doesn't resemble any of his own hits so much as about a dozen of Jimmy Buffett's. And Henley drops into his "Dirty Laundry" judge-and-jury mode for "Frail Grasp on the Big Picture," which finds him at his least appealing. You're never sure if he's denouncing the mainstream press because it misrepresented the Iraq war, or just because it annoys celebrities.

The best parts of the set aren't political at all: They're about the passage of time. It's a common enough theme for aging rock stars (and one that Henley already mined successfully on "The Boys of Summer"), but there's a darker beauty here that you don't really expect on an Eagles album.

"No More Walks in the Wood" opens the album with a reflective mood and gorgeous harmonies, harking back to the band's overlooked cover of Steve Young's "Seven Bridges Road." In fact, "Wood" is enough to set this up as a real Eagles album, not a collection of solo turns. It also lends a bittersweet flavor to the following "How Long," a faithful revival of a J.D. Souther song that the band played on its first tours.

It's no surprise that the autumnal theme returns at the very end of Long Road Out of Eden - but the Tex-Mex cantina feel of "It's Your World Now" is less expected, with no real precedent in the band's catalog. And so, instead of finishing with a ponderous ballad, the Eagles go out with a lovely tequila sunset.

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