What a long, strange wait it's been. Don Felder has left, a generation has grown into adulthood, and at long last, Eagles return with a new studio album, their first since 1979's The Long Run. Given the interim, though, fans couldn't possibly have asked for more. The two-disc, 20-track Long Road Out of Eden not only retains the entire menu of the Eagles' staple sounds--effortless, multi-part harmonies; colorful, if not intricate, guitar embellishment; meticulously crafted songwriting; squeaky-clean, almost geriatric production--but many of these songs also viscerally recall past hits from Eagles' or the extant members' solo records. Like revenant doubles, "Frail Grasp on the Big Picture" echoes "Life in the Fast Lane," "How Long" channels "Take It Easy," the guitar arpeggio threading through "Center of the Universe" hints at the ubiquitous "Hotel California," and "Business As Usual" could have been culled from the cutting room floor from Don Henley's The End of the Innocence. The effect of all this familiarity is one of masterfully crafted self-tribute with one eye riveted on posterity, calculated to please both the deep-pocketed who can still afford the Eagles' concerts and those who'd given up on ever hearing new material again. --Jason Kirk

List Song:
Disc: 1
1. No More Walks in the Wood
2. How Long
3. Busy Being Fabulous
4. What Do I Do with My Heart
5. Guilty of the Crime
6. I Don't Want to Hear Any More
7. Waiting in the Weeds
8. No More Cloudy Days
9. Fast Company
10. Do Something
11. You Are Not Alone

Disc: 2
1. Long Road out of Eden
2. I Dreamed There Was No War [Instrumental]
3. Somebody
4. Frail Grasp on the Big Picture
5. Last Good Time in Town
6. I Love to Watch a Woman Dance
7. Business as Usual
8. Center of the Universe
9. It's Your World Now