Hell Freezes Over

Performer: Eagles
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: The Eagles: Don Felder (vocals, guitar); Glenn Frey (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); Joe Walsh (vocals, guitar, organ); Timothy B. Schmit (vocals, bass); Don Henley (vocals, drums, percussion). Additional personnel: John Corey (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Timothy Drury (vocals, keyboards); Jay Oliver (keyboards); Scott Crago (drums, percussion); Gary Grimm, Stan Lynch, Paulinho Da Costa (percussion). Producers: Eagles, Elliot Scheiner, Rob Jacobs, Stan Lynch. Engineers: Rob Jacobs, Elliot Scheiner. Recorded at Warner Burbank Studios, Burbank, California; The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California; Sounds Interchange, Toronto, Canada. Includes liner notes by Sal Manna. HELL FREEZES OVER features four new studio tracks along with live material from the Eagles' return concert on MTV. "Love Will Keep Us Alive" was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and "Hotel California" was nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. HELL FREEZES OVER was nominated for Best Pop Album. This is a DTS CD, which features DTS 5.1 Surround Sound technology and is playable on a DTS-capable 5.1 Surround Sound system. The Eagles: Don Felder (guitar, vocals); Glenn Frey (guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals); Joe Walsh (guitar, organ, vocals); Timothy B. Schmit (bass, vocals); Don Henley (drums, percussion, vocals). Additional personnel: Jay Oliver (keyboards); Timothy Drury (keyboards, vocals); John Corey (keyboards, guitar, vocals); Gary Grimm, Stan Lynch, Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Scott Crago (percussion, drums). Producers: Eagles, Elliot Scheiner, Rob Jacobs, Stan Lynch. Engineers: Rob Jacobs, Elliot Scheiner. Recorded at Warner Burbank Studios, Burbank, California; The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California; Sounds Interchange, Toronto, Canada. Includes liner notes by Sal Manna. HELL FREEZES OVER features four new studio tracks along with live material from the Eagles' return concert on MTV. "Love Will Keep Us Alive" was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and "Hotel California" was nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. HELL FREEZES OVER was nominated for Best Pop Album. The Eagles' first newly recorded album in 14 years gets off to a good start with the rocker "Get Over It," a timely piece of advice about accepting responsibility, followed by the tender ballad "Love Will Keep Us Alive," the country-styled "The Girl from Yesterday," and "Learn to Be Still," one of Don Henley's more thoughtful statements. Unfortunately, that's the extent of the album's new material. Essentially, Hell Freezes Over contains an EP's worth of new material followed by a live album. The Eagles, known for meticulously re-creating their studio recordings in concert, nevertheless released an earlier concert recording, Eagles Live, in 1980. Six songs from that set reappear here, and only one is in a noticeably different arrangement, with "Hotel California" receiving the acoustic treatment. As was true on Eagles Live, the group remains most interested in their later material, redoing five songs from the Hotel California LP and two from its follow-up, The Long Run, but finding space for only three songs from their early days: "Tequila Sunrise," "Take It Easy," and "Desperado," the last two of which were also on Eagles Live. As such, Hell Freezes Over is hard to justify as anything other than a souvenir for the Eagles' reunion tour. That, however, did not keep it from topping the charts and selling in the millions. ~ William Ruhlmann The Eagles were never a great live band, which makes the process of reinventing their hits slightly harder. But they are smart businessmen, so they realized that they didn't need to reinvent themselves; if they reunited, the public would only care about seeing the band again and just hearing the hits. When the Eagles finally reunited in 1994 for a mammoth tour, they began their tour with an MTV Unplugged set. The result is Hell Freezes Over. The band accentuates their country leanings, but everything winds up sounding much duller than their original recordings because they accentuate their relaxed vibe, not their rootsiness. Although the album sold well, it's not nearly as captivating as the original versions. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine In a disappointing year of virtual reality performances, the Eagles' highly touted tour of America was a triumphant affirmation of enduring pop values, from a band that literally wrote the stylistic book on the singer-songwriter/rock'n'roll synthesis during the '70s. And as a band member jokes in a droll intro to their live set, "For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation." So now we have one of the most anticipated reunions in rock history. Certainly the internal pressures which tore the band apart haven't been papered over, judging from post-tour statements. From the outgrowth of all that creative tension is a remarkably tight live set, and a four-song prologue of new Eagles material, all as fresh and melodious as the originals. Not surprisingly, the strongest of the new tunes, "Get Over It" and "Learn To Be Still," come from collaborations involving Don Henley. The latter a dark folkish ballad offering reassurance in the face of life's small, bitter defeats, the former a four-on-the-floor, chicken fried rocker which decries the self-victimization of Americans. And their live rendition of classic tunes really hold up: all are brimming over with elements of country, R&B and blues, sedate, funky grooves, seamless five-part harmonies and sweet soaring guitar solos and duets--all the sounds and flourishes which add up to the Eagles trademark California rock. In a disappointing year of virtual reality performances, the Eagles' highly touted tour of America was a triumphant affirmation of enduring pop values, from a band that literally wrote the stylistic book on the singer-songwriter/rock'n'roll synthesis during the '70s. And as a band member jokes in a droll intro to their live set, "For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation." So now we have one of the most anticipated reunions in rock history. Certainly the internal pressures which tore the band apart haven't been papered over, judging from post-tour statements. From the outgrowth of all that creative tension is a remarkably tight live set, and a four-song prologue of new Eagles material, all as fresh and melodious as the originals. Not surprisingly, the strongest of the new tunes, "Get Over It" and "Learn To Be Still," come from collaborations involving Don Henley. The latter a dark folkish ballad offering reassurance in the face of life's small, bitter defeats, the former a four-on-the-floor, chicken fried rocker which decries the self-victimization of Americans. And their live rendition of classic tunes really hold up: all are brimming over with elements of country, R&B and blues, sedate, funky grooves, seamless five-part harmonies and sweet soaring guitar solos and duets--all the sounds and flourishes which add up to the Eagles trademark California rock.

Rolling Stone (12/15/94, p.92) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...the result is a tasteful, somewhat insular compilation of songs by former Eagles, rather than a fresh statement by a newly reunified band..." Rolling Stone (12/15/94, p.92) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...the result is a tasteful, somewhat insular compilation of songs by former Eagles, rather than a fresh statement by a newly reunified band..." Q (1/95, p.252) - 3 Stars - Good - "...The Eagles, man. They're OK." Q (1/95, p.252) - 3 Stars - Good - "...The Eagles, man. They're OK." Musician (1-2/95, p.77) - "...this doesn't just pick up from where THE LONG RUN left off. If anything, it's a sequel to COMMON THREAD, positioning the Eagles less as rockers with country roots than a country band that rocks..." Musician (1-2/95, p.77) - "...this doesn't just pick up from where THE LONG RUN left off. If anything, it's a sequel to COMMON THREAD, positioning the Eagles less as rockers with country roots than a country band that rocks..."

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