Hotel California

The Eagles reached the 80.000.000 mark last year. Eighty million records sold - not just of "Hotel California", of course, but of their entire catalogue.
Still, this album is rightly considered their artistic peak as well as their commercial one. I don't think I've ever heard any piece of popular music as well crafted as the title track...all of the Eagles were amazingly gifted musicians, and to have three guitarists of the caliber of Don Felder, Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey assembled in one band is simply astonishing.

The partiture to "Hotel California" reads a classical chamber piece. At one point eight electric and acoustic guitars are playing at the same time!
Everybody has heard "Hotel California" so many times that they forget what an incredible musical achievement it actually is - but just listen to Don Felder's 16-bar solo immediately after the last verse. That has to be one of the greatest rock guitar solos ever committed to tape.

But "Hotel California" isn't just the title track. "New Kid In Town" and "Life In The Fast Lane", with the instantly recognizable main riff by Joe Walsh, were major hit singles as well - in fact, this album doesn't contain a single weak track. "Wasted Time" is a slow, emotional ballad, and "Victim Of Love" a rock song with a crunching cut-n-shuffle riff. Joe Walsh contributes the beautiful "Pretty Maids All In A Row", and bassist Randy Meisner is the man behind "Try And Love Again", a lovely country rocker with ringing lead guitar work from Glenn Frey.
The album closes with the 7½-minute "The Last Resort", which showcases Don Henley the songwriter at his most acidic, but it is also one of his best vocal performances.

This is perhaps less of a pop album than the Eagles' previous records - some of the songs lack the instantly catchy hit quality of "One Of These Nights" or "Lyin' Eyes" - but the Eagles more than make up for this more "mature" approach to songwriting with their awesome instrumental and vocal skills. I can't imagine a more competent band than the Eagles at their mid-seventies prime, and this is the crown jewel in their musical legacy, one of the best and most succesful "adult" rock records of all time.

Why would anyone want to buy a copy of this album when you've alraedy heard all the songs a thousand times over and over gain.The first real reason would be the multi-channel remix, by the original producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk with the assistance of sound guru Elliot Scheiner. The second is the discs High Fidelity, all made possible by the excellent restoration work which has been done and is explained in the DVD Video suplementary material. The title track is the opener and the benchmark for the whole album in terms of surround sound presentation. The centre is used throughout to convey discrete events and the surrounds are used creatively to display guitars on all four sides of the room. What is impressive however is that "Hotel California" has never sounded better, in fact I would go to say that even if you've heard the track a thousand times before, this presentation is nothing short of brilliant! It fills in where the CD re-issues have lacked, with low frequencies which are deep and forceful, but there are also subtleties, with delicate sounds and percussion together with bass guitar which really benefit from the great sense of air and space which is ever present. Moving on to "Pretty Maids All In A Row" this track will settle the vinyl junkies who are still tutting at this review, the tracks slow fade is out of complete silence, there isn't even the remotest of background noise. Unlike the vinyl version. All the tracks are perfectly balanced and it is a tribute to this new medium. On the whole this disc is flawless in musical content. The DVD Video interview with the producer is interesting and novel but it sounds horrendous, which is no drawback when you hear the album. The sound options are Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS which is not mentioned anywhere on the packaging! There is also a stereo version for the purists among you. Overall and even if you know this album back to front this disc is an experience to behold. "Hotel California" is a must have DVD Audio.

She'd taped a cool new song off the radio, a friend told me almost 30 years ago; she'd play it for me when I'd come to her place after school.

The song was "Hotel California," and my perception of music changed then and there, once and for all. I didn't even really understand the lyrics - I had barely begun to learn English, and apart from everything else I sure as hell didn't know what "colitas" meant. But understanding all the song's words wasn't necessary. From the first chords played by Felder and Walsh, this song was different from anything I had ever heard before. The layers of electric guitar riffs alternating with and ornamenting Don Henley's vocals, soaring in the chorus and culminating in a moving and evocative duet, touched a spot deep inside me that required no further explanation. Nor, really, did the other songs on this album which I instantaneously knew I had to have. I got the message conveyed in the raw edges of "Life in the Fast Lane," Joe Walsh's riffs throughout the song, the two guitar solos and Don Henley's sneering vocals, as well as I could hear the sense of loss in "Wasted Time," "The Last Resort" and "New Kid in Town."

This is not to say, of course, that the lyrics didn't matter to me once I was able to fully understand them. Rather, that understanding deepened my appreciation for the album; and yet another level of insight was added when I went to California for the first time in 1991. By that time I was an ardent fan, and although the Eagles didn't even exist as a band back then, their music has become an inseparable part of my memory of those months - particularly the album which bears the state's name and is so often called the quintessential California rock album (not only of the 1970s) that this description in itself is bordering on cliche now, true as it may once have been.

Since the release of their 1976 studio album, the Eagles have published several other versions of "Hotel California," and I love them all. (I even - sometimes - like the ska version Don Henley and his incredible tour band performed during their 2001 "Inside Job" tour.) But ultimately, it all comes back down for me to the duet of those two electric guitars which forever redefined the way I listen to music.