Search - Eagles :: Hotel California (Shm)

Everything you need is on Greatest Hits, Vol 2

Phil (San Diego, CA) | San Diego, CA | 09/30/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Eagles were never a country band but they had just enough of that flavor to make them distinctive. Lineup changes stripped the band of their unique sound and from this point on they became just another FM rock band. That's not to say that this album didn't turn out some good singles. "New Kid In Town" gets less airplay than some of the Eagles' tracks, making it the one tune from this collection that I still welcome.



The title track is one of their most popular classics but Don Felder, who wrote the exquisite introduction which defines this song, was shown the door after this album. The Eagles have since turned that intro into a wine and cheese number as their audience has aged. Also departing sometime between '76 and '78 were original members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. They were subsequently replaced by purveyor of soft rock Timothy B. Schmidt just in time for his "I Can't Tell You Why" to rub elbows on adult contemporary radio formats with "The Pina Colada Song".



Everything you need from this album - and this second phase of their career (1977-80) - is on Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. The rest of this album's tracks range from filler to pleasant to overlong; I couldn't imagine enduring them on an mp3 player even out of curiosity. "Hotel California" just doesn't hold a candle to their albums "Desperado" or "On the Border". Nice cover though."