Building the Perfect Beast
Henley--arguably the most talented member of theEagles--had toyed with playful pop hooks on hisI Can't Stand Stillsolo bow in 1982. Two years later he got down to business on this brainy, politics-themed sophomore disc, which indicted his native Hollywood as venomously as "Hotel California" once did. Surfaces were still somewhat glossy--there's no denying the foot-tapping elan of "Boys of Summer or "All She Wants to Do Is Dance." But the vitriol roiling just beneath those surfaces was deep, intellectual stuff. Henley, as he continued to prove with the more eloquentThe End of the Innocencea few years later, is someone his fans can neither underestimate nor predict. Can we say the same of Glenn Frey or Randy Meisner?--Tom Lanham