Tag: Eagles

Title: Eagles – The Long Run (2023 MFSL UltraDisc UHR SACD) (1979/2023)
Genre: Classic Rock, Country Rock
Format: SACD ISO

Originally intended as a clever poke at the era’s trends that critics maintained were making the band irrelevant, the title of and music on The Long Run continue to prove the Eagles got the last laugh. Created in the wake of the group’s demanding tour for the blockbuster Hotel California, the 1979 record ultimately became the final record the Eagles would create for nearly three decades. Stacked with first-rate material and three mammoth singles, the seven-times-platinum effort ensured the Eagles never drifted far from the public’s consciousness.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes and housed in a mini-LP gatefold sleeve package, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD presents The Long Run in audiophile sound. Akin to the audiophile label’s other Eagles SACDs, this collectible edition plays with organic richness, spectacular dynamics, and microscopic levels of detail. Songs come across with an epic sweep and feature front-to-back soundstages that give the music desirable air, roominess, and separation. “Who is gonna make it?/We’ll find out in the long run,” posits Don Henley on the album’s opening track, an R&B-fueled classic that reached No. 8 on the charts. Henley later addressed the irony of the lyrics; his group was in the process of breaking apart when he wrote it. Yet the singer-songwriter and colleague Glenn Frey clearly knew something others failed to recognize. Related themes of survival, resilience, and dark humor course throughout The Long Run, which also marks the arrival of bassist Timothy B. Schmit. His lead vocal anchors the No. 8 hit “I Can’t Tell You Why,” a staple he co-wrote with Henley and Frey. That dynamic duo has a hand in all but one of the songs, “In the City,” Joe Walsh’s slide-guitar-appointed ode to endurance. Walsh also shares a writing credit on the closing “The Sad Cafe,” a melodramatic favorite whose lineage extends to another of the band’s longtime collaborators, J.D. Souther. He, along with Frey and Henley, teamed with Detroit legend Bob Seger on penning the record’s signature anthem: the Grammy-winning “Heartache Tonight.” Fueled by rhythmic handclaps, a romping groove, and the band’s trademark California-bred country-rock style, the chart-topper comfortably sits alongside deep cuts such as the winking shuffle “The Disco Strangler” and cinematic “King of Hollywood.” The challenges and pressures associated with making The Long Run after dealing with the unimaginable success of Hotel California ended up grounding the Eagles. Yet the album’s enduring merit, performances, and melodies confirmed Henley and Frey’s beliefs. The Eagles are still thriving. They made it. The long run continues.

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Title: Eagles – Hotel California (2023 MFSL UltraDisc UHR SACD) (1976/2023)
Genre: Classic Rock, Country Rock
Format: SACD ISO

The moment the instantly recognizable intertwined guitar passage on the title track to the Eagles’ Hotel California begins, the record’s genius becomes obvious all over again. Ranked the 118th Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, certified by RIAA as the third best-selling LP in history, and looked upon as the foundation upon which the Golden State’s mid-’70s rustic music scene was built, the 1976 landmark is a music staple immune to shifts in trends, eras, and styles. Fearlessly addressing the chaos and consequences of American life, its songs remain strikingly prescient and gain credence with each passing day.
Sourced from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD ensures you will want to permanently check into and never leave this particular Hotel California. Recognizing the importance of presenting this oft-reissued longtime audiophile favorite in spectacular sound, this numbered-edition disc plays with alluring clarity, organic richness, tube-like warmth, massive dynamics, and copious detail. You’ll be able to almost smell the colitas and feel the breeze in your hair. Songs feature front-to-back soundstages that allow the music incredible air, roominess, and separation. Indeed, the opportunity to zero in on all the particulars of the Eagles record dubbed “a legitimate rock masterpiece” by vaunted Los Angeles Times scribe Robert Hilburn has never been better. A global phenomenon that marked the band debut of guitarist-singer Joe Walsh, Hotel California continues to resonate and connect with listeners of all generations taken by its narrative depth, stark directness, picturesque melodies, daring majesty, and passionate emotionalism. Adorned with a breathtaking exterior photograph of the Beverly Hills Hotel that serves as the simultaneously haunting and alluring cover art, and rounded out by a rear-cover shot of the Lido Hotel lobby that reinforces a notion that teeters between permanence and transience, Hotel California is brilliantly tied to a specific place that functions as a universally understood metaphor for the American Dream. Confronting the darker undercurrents and oft-ignored constructs attached to that romantic notion, the record’s songs revolve around a host of shared themes: excess, mobility, stability, illusion, fame, destruction, and idealism included. Notably, Hotel California appeared at a crucial junction in American history: During the country’s bicentennial and amid escalating controversies related to the Vietnam War, energy crisis, governmental corruption, and more. That the Eagles manage to channel such cultural, social, and economical matters into a cohesive, stately, big-picture statement is alone a stupendous feat. That the album’s reach, boldness, vitality, accessibility, and understated intensity have never waned make it a marvel. Reflecting on Hotel California 40 years after its original release, and indirectly explaining its enduring appeal and increasing relevance, singer-songwriter Don Henley confirmed the record pertains to the “loss of innocence, the cost of naiveté…the difficulties of balancing loving relationships and work, trying to square the conflicting relationship between business and art; the corruption in politics, the fading away of the Sixties dream of ‘peace, love and understanding.'” It can be argued that Henley and company squarely hit on and drive home those ideas in the surreal title track, chart-topping “Life in the Fast Lane,” and grand “The Last Resort” alone. But that would miss the forest for the trees. Experienced as an unbroken whole, complete with the pristinely shot imagery and physical grooves, Hotel California unfolds like a geography-conscious saga by James Michener and plays like color-saturated movie shot on widescreen 70mm film by Martin Scorcese about our collective and individual decisions and shape of our past, present, and future. And, just like that conjured by our imaginations, Hotel California continues to take on a life of its own.

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Title: Eagles – Eagles (1972) [MFSL 2021]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Originally released in June 1972, the Eagles’ self-titled debut played a significant role in changing the face of mainstream music while setting up a dominant run that’s continued for nearly five decades. Produced by Glyn Johns, and home to three massive hits, Eagles established a cleverly restrained, Los Angeles-bred style that would sweep the country and position the group as superstars. Mastered from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD pays tribute to the record’s merit and enhances the intimate program for generations to come. Playing with reference sonics that elevate an effort forever prized by audiophiles, this spectacular version provides a clear, clean, transparent, balanced, and intimate view of an album that permanently made California-style rock a style of its own.

Visually, the front cover of the album brilliantly captures the fundamentals of the Eagles’ aural essence. Photographed at Joshua Tree National Park, it portrays a seemingly endless blue sky arched over the hovering copper glow of a sunset. In the foreground, shadow-bathed cacti hugs a slice of desert, both illuminated by nature above and beyond. Peaceful, easy, breezy, organic, laidback, cohesive, warm yet cool: The picture parallels the tone and timbre of the content lurking in the songs, and helps elevate Eagles to that rare place where every single aspect (and participant) is united in theme and purpose. As just one of two Eagles albums created by the original quartet of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner, and Bernie Leadon, the record remains unique in the band’s history for the shared songwriting and vocal performances. Each member takes the lead on at least one track, extending to Meisner on “Most of Us Are Sad,” “Take the Devil,” and “Tryin'” as well as Leadon on “Train Leaves Here This Morning” and “Earlybird.” The mellifluous blending of the Eagles’ distinctive voices, the very aspect that drew Johns to the project, lingers throughout. Such harmonizing – in combination with textured sonic tapestries stitched with acoustic guitars, steady bass lines, banjo notes, folk constructs, and edgy rock elements – informs arrangements bolstered by golden melodies and brilliant craftsmanship. Nowhere is that approach more evident than on “Take It Easy,” an opening tune that quickly became a signpost of the collective’s mentality, technique, and philosophy. Rambling, and related themes of traveling or returning home, resurface in “Train Leaves Here This Morning” and the restless “Take the Devil.” Women, another of the Eagles’ other long-running inspirations, occupies much of the album’s other focus. Frey’s opportunistic “Chug All Night,” the Top 25 smash “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” and Jackson Browne’s devotional “Nightingale” continue the light-streaked vibes. In contrast, Henley’s cautionary “Witchy Woman” portends the darker concepts the band would explore going forward even as the song maintains a voodoo-kissed, feel-good mood. Indeed, few albums of the era felt better in both scope and spirit.

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Title: Eagles – Desperado (1973) [MFSL 2022]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

If Don Henley was the sole member of the Eagles underrepresented on their debut album, Eagles, with only two lead vocals and one co-songwriting credit, he made up for it on their follow-up, the “concept” album Desperado. The concept had to do with Old West outlaws, but it had no specific narrative. On Eagles, the group had already begun to marry itself to a Southwest sound and lyrical references, from the Indian-style introduction of “Witchy Woman” to the Winslow, AZ, address in “Take It Easy.” All of this became more overt on Desperado, and it may be that Henley, who hailed from Northeast Texas, had the greatest affinity for the subject matter. In any case, he had co-writing credits on eight of the 11 selections and sang such key tracks as “Doolin-Dalton” and the title song. What would become recognizable as Henley’s lyrical touch was apparent on those songs, which bore a serious, world-weary tone. Henley had begun co-writing with Glenn Frey, and they contributed the album’s strongest material, which included the first single, “Tequila Sunrise,” and “Desperado” (strangely never released as a single). But where Eagles seemed deliberately to balance the band’s many musical styles and the talents of the band’s members, Desperado, despite its overarching theme, often seemed a collection of disparate tracks – “Out of Control” was a raucous rocker, while “Desperado” was a painfully slow ballad backed by strings – with other bandmembers’ contributions tacked on rather than integrated. Randy Meisner was down to two co-writing credits and one lead vocal (“Certain Kind of Fool”), while Bernie Leadon’s two songs, “Twenty-One” and “Bitter Creek,” seemed to come from a different record entirely. The result was an album that was simultaneously more ambitious and serious-minded than its predecessor and also slighter and less consistent.

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Title: Eagles – On The Border (2022 MFSL UltraDisc UHR SACD) (1974/2022)
Genre: Classic Rock, Country Rock, Folk Rock
Format: SACD ISO

With its name indicative of the music’s boundary-testing diversity and Southwestern inspiration, On the Border finds the Eagles leaving everything on the table and embracing a harder edge that takes the band out of more relaxed territory and establishes it as a group that knows how—and wants—to rock. Glenn Frey, Don Henley, new member Don Felder, and company immediately announce their intent on the defiant album-opening hit “Already Gone” and never look back, crafting a gem of a record that from start to finish is arguably their most consistent and balanced effort.

Mastered from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD plays with reference clarity, presence, and dynamics that elevate an effort revered for decades by audiophiles, it provides a lively, transparent, and intimate view of a release whose contemporary importance continues to grow. The opportunity to zero in on the particulars of the Eagles’ golden harmonies, distinct vocal timbres, and cohesive interplay has never been better. Free of artificial ceilings and artifacts, the collectible reissue also spotlights the important sonic differences between the approaches of the two producers that are an important part of the album’s story and success. Indeed, with On the Border, there’s plenty to take in and soak up. Declared by famed critic Robert Christgau as “[the Eagles’] best album,” the 1974 set claims a rich backstory. Initially recorded amid tumultuous sessions with producer Glyn Johns in London shortly after the release of the group’s sophomore Desperado set, On the Border took a new turn after the band elected to scrap most of the prior work, return to its native California, and team with producer Bill Szymczyk to give the material less of a smooth, polished sheen and more toughness. Szymczyk also afforded the Eagles more input and freedom in the arrangements, and suggested adding another guitarist to play on “Good Day in Hell.” Felder got the call, and so won over the Eagles with his skills, he quickly became the fifth member of the band. While the late-arriving Felder only plays on one other album cut, “Already Gone,” his mates more than prove their muster on the remainder of a double-platinum affair that established the Eagles as a force whose range transcended the calmer country-leaning style it perfected on their first two LPs. Primarily written by Jackson Browne and shelved during the Desperado sessions due to its higher-energy nature, the throttle-twisting “James Dean” ricochets with barbed riffs and rebellious swagger. Listen without limits to how Szymczyk’s raw production stamps the song with a leather-and-jeans cool befitting its protagonist. Similarly rugged, the slide-guitar-fueled “Good Day in Hell” boasts its own mean streak. And the funk-laced, boot-stomping title track cautions “don’t you tell me ’bout your law and order.” Throughout On the Border, the Eagles are in no mood to mess around. Not that the band skirts sentimental territory. On one of the era’s finest covers, the Eagles nail the bittersweet feelings and bring high-definition detail to the vivid scenery of Tom Waits’ “Ol’ ‘55,” a song the group makes its own. The rustic ballad “My Man” serves as a tribute to the recently deceased Gram Parsons, with singer-guitarist Bernie Leadon taking the lead on the microphone as he pours his heart out to his former Flying Burrito Brothers mate. And when it comes to romance, is it possible to top “Best of My Love”? Graced with Henley’s honey-dipped vocals, refined wordless group harmonies, brushed drums, and the gentle strum of acoustic guitars, the Johns-produced cut soared to No. 1 and set the stage for what would soon be the Eagles’ reality: international stardom.

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Title: Eagles – One Of These Nights (2022 MFSL UltraDisc UHR SACD) (1975/2022)
Genre: Country Rock, Classic Rock
Format: SACD ISO

One of These Nights occupies an important place in the Eagles’ discography in that it represents the final album the group made before releasing the bajillion-selling Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) compilation. The timing is telling. A coming-out party for Glenn Frey and Don Henley’s songwriting skills, the studio record – the band’s fourth, and its first to hit #1 on the charts – signifies the group’s ascent to superstar status. Home to three massive singles (the title track, “Lyin’ Eyes,” and “Take It to the Limit”) and nominated for four Grammy Awards, the quadruple-platinum 1975 effort solidified the Eagles’ Southern California-reared sound and made the band a household name.

Mastered from the original analog tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD helps take One of These Nights to new limits. Playing with reference sonics and incredible clarity, it provides a rich, dynamic, transparent, and three-dimensional view into a release that moved country-rock ahead by leaps and bounds – and paved the way for the Eagles’ ascendancy to global superstardom. The opportunity to zero in on the particulars of the Eagles’ golden harmonies, distinct vocal timbres, and cohesive interplay has never been better. Everything about the record continues to resonate and connect with multiple generations, including the striking cover art. Devised by West Texas artist Boyd Elder, the now-familiar skull-and-feathers themed piece that graces the front of One of These Nights represents where the Eagles have been and where they were going. Album art director Gary Burden explained: “The cow skull is pure cowboy, folk, the decorations are American Indian-inspired, and the future is represented by the more polished reflective glass beaded surfaces covering the skull.” Moreover, Elder met the group years earlier when Henley and company performed at one of his gallery openings in California. MoFi’s UD1S box set allows Elder’s vision, and Burden’s debossed treatment, to pop and appear as if it was a standalone object. Of course, what’s inside the sleeve proves equally compelling. Though One of These Nights marks the final appearance of band co-founder Bernie Leadon on an Eagles LP and contains three of his tunes, the record’s tremendous success owes to Frey and Henley’s timeless contributions. Taking the next step in their maturation and evolution, the pair crafted several songs while living together as roommates in a rented house in which they converted a music room into a recording studio. The duo’s bond and chemistry pulse throughout the record – particularly in the tight arrangements, tasteful instrumental flourishes, and seamless blending of the folk, country, and rock elements. The musical combinations and partnership not only produced the Eagles’ first million-selling single (the slow-dancing “Take It to the Limit,” co-written with bassist-vocalist Randy Meisner) and the Frey-led cheating classic “Lyin’ Eyes,” but the famed title track, which nods to the era’s nascent disco scene as well as Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philly soul platters. Frey named “One of These Nights” as his favorite Eagles composition of all-time; Meisner’s high harmonies alone send the track into a galaxy of its own. Speaking of the latter, Leadon’s instrumental “Journey of the Sorcerer” ventures into another universe and was soon used by Douglas Adams as the theme to his “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” radio series. Inspiration and creative experimentation also dragged the Eagles into the blues. Another Frey-Henley gem, the self-probing “After the Thrill Is Gone” serves as a response song to B.B. King’s signature track and more evidence the band was turning the lens inward for lyrical narratives. Like everything on One of These Nights, the song confirms the Eagles were breathing rare musical air.

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