The Eagles
' first newly recorded album in 14 years gets off to a good start with the rocker
"Get Over It,"
a timely piece of advice about accepting responsibility, followed by the tender ballad
"Love Will Keep Us Alive,"
the country-styled
"The Girl from Yesterday,"
and
"Learn to Be Still,"
one of
Don Henley
's more thoughtful statements. Unfortunately, that's the extent of the album's new material. Essentially,
Hell Freezes Over
contains an EP's worth of new material followed by a live album.
, known for meticulously re-creating their studio recordings in concert, nevertheless released an earlier concert recording,
Eagles Live
, in 1980. Six songs from that set reappear here, and only one is in a noticeably different arrangement, with
"Hotel California"
receiving the acoustic treatment. As was true on
, the group remains most interested in their later material, redoing five songs from the
Hotel California
LP and two from its follow-up,
The Long Run
, but finding space for only three songs from their early days:
"Tequila Sunrise,"
"Take It Easy,"
"Desperado,"
the last two of which were also on
. As such,
is hard to justify as anything other than a souvenir for
the Eagles
' reunion tour. That, however, did not keep it from topping the charts and selling in the millions. ~ William Ruhlmann