REVIEW: Don Henley, Inside Job (Warner Bros.)
- Paul Andersen
I am not sure if it is some kind of millennial artist bug going around, but there has been a subtle trend of CDs surfacing from artists who have been MIA for quite a while. And we're not talking small indie critical darlings; no, there have been some BIG NAMES coming back to action.
Ex (? - who can say)-Eagle Don Henley follows Steely Dan and No Doubt back into the fray with Inside Job, his first new album (anthologies and greatest hits packages don't count) since 1989's The End of the Innocence, and it is a winner on all counts. At times unabashedly romantic, other turns richly cynical, it represents Henley doing what he does best - writing quality songs that utilizes his crooner's voice for maximum impact.
Whether big blustery songs ("Nobody Else In The World But You," the anthemic "Workin' It"), soft, gently lit tunes like the classic-to-be "For My Wedding" or Eagle-like romps ("Everything Is Different Now"), it is all wrapped up in sparkling production by Henley and ex-Heartbreaker Stan Lynch. The sound is modern without leaving previous fans in the dust. Not techno-Henley perhaps, but he has been listening to the pop world while he's been gone.
It wouldn't be a Henley album without a tip of the hat towards such favorite subjects as ecology ("Goodbye To A River") and conspiracies ("They're Not Here, They're Not Coming"), but overall, it seems as if Henley's marriage and subsequent family life, which finds him back in his native Texas, has colored much of the feel here. It may not be a warmer, gentler Don Henley so much as a bit more rooted Henley. The edge is still there - but so is an edge of contentment, too.
