Eagles

Eagles haven't put out a new album since 1979, a year which-given their current cultural bearing-may not seem too long ago. After all, their presence hasn't diminished much since Henley & Co's glory days, fixed as they are in our consciousness by classic-rock radio, television commercials and the marked aversion one fictional Californian slacker harbors towards them.

Since their last release, the Eagles have undergone a bitter breakup, embarked on successful solo careers, been sued by former members and frozen hell over with an unlikely reunion. Somehow, throughout the turmoil, their sound has remained much the same-their evolution limited to live albums and a smattering of new tracks that play more like "best of" updates than original material.

Their latest, Long Road Out of Eden, treads a similar path. Though it's unlikely to convert any unfaithful, the album manages a mellow, albeit occasionally bland return to the established Eagles form. Make no mistake-if you hate the Eagles, you will f-ing hate this album. But for those looking for the familiar, easy-going guitar progressions and three-part harmonies of classic rock's golden days, Long Road plays like a page out of an old Eagles song book.

Though some tracks on the overly long double-disc release can be easily overlooked as rehash, a few shine forth as worthy additions to the Eagles' repertoire.

"Busy Being Fabulous" employs a slow, country swing beneath Henley's voice, which blends with those of Walsh and Frey to forge a typically saccharine refrain on the song's title. Honky tonk guitars and spiraling blues riffs dominate "How Long," the album's first single and its most Eagles-sounding song, despite being written by non-Eagle J.D. Souther.

These tracks, like many on the album, find their appeal in their remarkable unremarkability-a tone that the rest of Long Road Out of Eden dutifully follows. Unambitious and unassuming, the album successfully adheres to the same tried and true conventions that have given the Eagles' sound its tremendous staying power-all 28 years worth.

-Bryan Sayler