Maybe I’m Old Fashioned…

… but I expect my music to concentrate on being musical first; then political later. There are lots of songs that are protest songs that don’t feel like you’re getting smacked in the face with the statement.  There were lots of protest songs that were art first; protest second. There were lots of songs that were social statements without the art suffering.  It seems like today, the statement comes first and the art is a very distant second.

I mention this because one of my favorite bands, The Eagles, released a new CD at Walmart.  The very first song feels like the guys were sitting around looking for material and one of them said, “Hey, I have this speech I wrote for a rally.” And another answered, “Let’s see if we can sing it in 4 part harmony.” It doesn’t work.  It’s too much statement and too little art.  It’s not even close to being the Eagles quality that I remember.

Overall, the album has a few statements that somebody wanted to make.  But, it’s decent anyway.  It’s just not great like some of the past albums.  It doesn’t have a real GREAT song on it that people will remember. There is no “Last Resort” or “Peaceful, Easy Feeling”. There is no “Desperado”.  There is no “Lyin’ Eyes”.  I could go on.  But, I won’t.

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