Review Summary: The Best Of Don Henley actually is a Best Of, even if some of us can't bear to hear certain tracks ever again. But I know we all love Boys Of Summer...so we gotta buy this album!
For those of you who may not know, that voice you hear singing Hotel California is none other than Don Henley. Also, for those who may not know, The Ataris did not actually write Boys Of Summer, that was also Don Henley. So Don Henley isn't so bad now eh? Thought so. Let me continue a little bit about him before we get started. After the breakup of the Eagles in 1980, Henley would begin what would turn out to be a very successful solo career. Beginning with that good ol' rock sound we all knew him for in the Eagles with his debut album
I Can't Stand Still, we were shown that Henley could survive without the rest of his bandmates. But unfortuantely for diehard Eagles fans, by the end of the 80s Don Henley would be a full blown pop act, suffering from Phil Collins syndrome. But the main difference between Henley and Collins is that Henley's work actually gets some credit from rock fans.
We can see that Henley can still write some good rock songs without the classic duo of Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh with
Dirty Laundry, a commentary on television news featuring a catchy keyboard line and a solid guitar solo from Steve Lukather. He even pulls up an aggressive side and really digs into hard rock with songs like
I Will Not Go Quietly and
You Don't Know Me At All. Axl Rose is even featured in one of the tracks! Fans of the Eagles should not be disappointed by either of those two which both feature strong guitar work, one being a very upbeat rock track, the other a dark, moody, epic piece.
But of course, there is a softer side to Don Henley. With the rock tracks there are going to ballads, but Henley does a good job at that.
The End of the Innocence is a political take on the Reagan administration with a very nostalgic sound thanks to Bruce Hornsby being a guest act on this song. But yet, that is probably the only strong ballad on here. While Don Henley did show us he could still rock, he obviously did need Glenn Frey on his side to keep writing good ballads.
New York Minute and the Bryan Adams-esque
The Heart of the Matter fail miserably at keeping the listener's attention.
In between the rockers and the ballads are some songs that are just, Don Henley.
Boys Of Summer and
Sunset Grill are both two of the highlights on this album. While everyone knows Boys Of Summer, Sunset Grill is a song with an immensley catchy synth line and an even better atmospheric chorus.
Everybody Knows is another track similar to these two but sometimes runs dry on the originality bank.
So Don Henley has shown us he can write some good songs even without the rest of the Eagles. But unfortuantely, without the rest of the band, he can still crank out clunkers like
All She Wants To Do Is Dance and
The Last Worthless Evening as well. But to make this simple, anybody who is a fan of the song Boys Of Summer should pick up this album, because in a sense, none of Henley's solo work strays too far away from that formula. That does imply that his work sounds the same, but that is not always true. This is an album worth checking out.
