USA Today Don Henley, Inside Job ( out of four) Eleven years have passed since Don Henley released his last new solo album, The End of the Innocence, and from the sound of things, they've been good ones. Henley's songwriting has long been marked by the most sympathetic kind of cynicism - that of an idealist who has lived and learned a bit too well. But on his latest effort, obviously influenced by his 1995 marriage and the subsequent birth of his two children, the singer often seems like a man reborn. He imbues his newfound joy in lean, graceful ballads and buoyant rockers that cannily blend rootsy textures with contemporary flourishes. Henley hasn't lost his flair for biting social commentary. They're Not Here, They're Not Coming and the hip-hop-laced Workin' It recapture the witty indignation of past singles such as Dirty Laundry.  Ultimately, though, Henley focuses more on counting his blessings than on documenting society's flaws. Annabel, a tender ode to his daughter, suggests The Eagles' hit Desperado reworked as an encouraging lullaby; while Taking You Home, For My Wedding and Everything Is Different Now are among the most moving love songs Henley has written. On the feisty final track, My Thanksgiving, he resolves, "An angry man can only get so far until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be with the way things are." Henley has hardly transformed himself into a Pollyanna, but on Inside Job, the singer acknowledges that a lot of fine things have been laid upon his table.- Elysa Gardner

CNN  "Inside Job"

Don Henley (Warner Bros.)

"Inside Job" marks the first album in 11 years for ex-Eagle Don Henley. His fans will feel rewarded for the wait. A supreme song stylist and vocal interpreter, Henley has painstakingly assembled a true work of art on the disc, ranging from the socio-political bite of the title track to the warm sentiments of "For My Wedding." This album is a masterpiece of real music.

New York Post
Don Henley's first album in 11 years, in stores today, seems to have been created as much for the artist himself as it was for his fans.

The songs are among the Eagles founder's most personal since "Building the Perfect Beast," and are inspired by family, love and the love of living.

Totally domesticated on the slow ballad "Wedding Day," Henley lets loose with the funkafied "Nobody Else In The World But You," which could be Part 2 of his old hit "All She Wants To Do Is Dance."

The blues rock on "Workin' It" - a don't-exploit-artists song - ranks as one of the disc's best.

Henley, one of the top songwriters in America, is also one of the best thinkers in music, so it isn't surprising that lyrics are more important to the man than melody. Still, the melodies are occasionally compelling.

Henley has kept up to date with trends in music, and the 13 tunes on "Inside Job" prove it isn't a record locked in the past.

The man and his music are pertinent after all these years - the songs rock, yet they have a mature message.

People
Inside Job
Don Henley (Warner Bros.)

 

The Eagle has landed: Don Henley sounds down at the mouth.

These days, Don Henley is married, the father of two [sic] and eager to declare (as he does on the tune "Everything Is Different Now"), "I hate to tell you this, but I'm very, very happy." And yet contentment has done nothing to soothe the former Eagle's rage. In fact, most of the songs on Inside Job -- his first album in 11 years -- vent bile on the usual shadowy cast of suspects: politicians, corporate bigwigs and (especially) anyone who has ever said anything unkind about Don Henley. "Chalk it up to business as usual," he grumbles in the title track.

In previous outings, Henley leavened his righteousness with enough humanity to steer away from sanctimony. Unfortunately, this collection of sleek, R&B-inflected pop tunes sounds as soulless as the demons he complains about. Despite a couple of sweet songs about his children and the pensive "For My Wedding" (which he didn't write), the album finds Henley sounding churlish and bored, revisiting themes he wrote better songs about in the past, before marital bliss turned him into such a grump.

Bottom Line: The noise of bummer

Rolling Stone

On his first two solo albums (I Can't Stand Still and Building the Perfect Beast), Don Henley made yearning his great theme. Something had disappeared that could never be recovered -- the Sixties? the Eagles? love? hope? -- and songs like "The Boys of Summer" and "Long Way Home" summoned the deep ache of that loss. On The End of the Innocence, Henley edged closer to acceptance and a renewed sense of possibility, especially on the album's masterful closing song, "The Heart of the Matter."

That seed of possibility flowers on Inside Job, his first solo album in eleven years. On the aptly titled "Everything Is Different Now," Henley whispers, "I hate to tell you this, but I'm very, very happy." That song ends a thematic trilogy that includes "Taking You Home" and "For My Wedding" (written by Larry John McNally), about love's transforming power. Unlike most paeans to domestic bliss -- Henley is now married with three children -- these songs convey genuine wonder, a palpable gratitude to "the god of simple things."

Those sunny emotions are only part of the album's mosaic, however. The sleek, insinuating "Miss Ghost" evokes the temptation of an alluring ex-lover, while the devastating ballad "Damn It, Rose" mourns a friend's suicide. On a more public front, "Workin' It" attacks the tyranny of "corporation nation-states" and a culture in which "packaging is all that heaven is." The sly, caustic "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming," meanwhile, shreds the desperate fantasy that kindly aliens will rescue us from a world where there is "no authenticity, no sign of soul/The radio won't play George and Merle."

Produced by Henley and Stan Lynch, Inside Job is a sonic marvel. Different as they are, each song finds its own atmospheric sound, with guitars, keyboards and background singers shifting textures in continual, sensual motion. As always, Henley's extraordinary voice -- a choirboy's earnestness abraded by R&B swagger -- drenches the meticulous, mid-tempo arrangements with powerful feeling.

Inside Job ends with the soaring "My Thanksgiving," on which Henley sings, "For everyone who helped me start/And for everything that broke my heart/For every breath, for every day of living/This is my Thanksgiving." Those are not hip sentiments, just the honest expression of a man who, at fifty-two, is producing work that easily ranks among the finest of his career. (RS 842)

ANTHONY DECURTIS

Henley launches tour with solid performance

By BRUCE WESTBROOK
  

Even with his huge success flying solo from the Eagles, Don Henley showed remarkable independence in his tour-opening show at Compaq Center Sunday night.

Only near the end of his 17-song set did he play an Eagles tune, Life in the Fast Lane, and it was contorted into a nonmelodic, near-rap rant with a sampling of the chant "Are you with me?"

Several thousand fans at Compaq -- scaled down to half-size -- clearly were.

Rarely does a performer receive the rapt respect he did. The arena was nearly pin-drop quiet for soft songs, while standing roars greeted others, and few cries for Eagles oldies were heard.

Henley did reward the patient, performing encores featuring Hotel California, Wasted Time, The Long Run and Desperado.

But though the last three were respectful renditions, he playfully reworked Hotel California via Latin lilts, lounge-lizard tackiness and Tusk-style trombones played by four lightly choreographed stagehands wearing dark glasses.

As Henley, 52, said at one point of Eagles music, "After 25 years, you've got to have fun with it."

Hotel California was one of his few forays into sheer showmanship. Mostly the casually clad Texan -- now Dallas-based -- eschewed the guitar he strummed for a few songs and simply stood still and sang powerfully, commanding the crowd with his recitallike calm and authority.

Yet there was nothing skimpy about his show, which ran two hours and 15 minutes including encores and featured 35 performers altogether.

Backed by a solid seven-man rock band, including a superb grand piano player, Henley also brought out a 12-member chorus, a seven-man brass section, a string quartet (for one song!) and the trombone foursome.

Playing beneath façades of Gothic castle ruins, he opened rousingly with early solo songs Dirty Laundry and Sunset Grill before introducing his new album, Inside Job.

Since Sunday's show preceded its release today, "that makes my job a little harder," Henley allowed. Yet he played more than half of the disc, and his tuneful new material was well received.

Especially potent were the lush and lovely ballad Taking You Home and the straight-ahead rocking of They're Not Here, They're Not Coming, which rebukes UFO-watchers and was dedicated to the late astronomer Carl Sagan, "bless his little pot-smoking heart."

More familiar solo songs included New York Minute, The Last Worthless Evening, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Innocence and the rollicking set-closer, All She Wants to Do Is Dance.

Some songs ended with an awkward abruptness -- chalk it up to being the tour's first show -- yet most were note-perfect renditions of recordings, the trade-off for spontaneity being robust professionalism.

But Boys of Summer had a tender and subdued reinvention, with raspy vocals and a mournful guitar steering a "pensive arrangement," as Henley nailed it afterward.

He often talked to the crowd -- purposefully, not rambling -- and made many Texas-aimed remarks, declaring it was "good to start at home." For Henley's fans, that worked both ways.

Concert review: Even Henley's rich voice couldn't hide his slide

By Michael Corcoran
American-Statesman Music Critic
Wednesday, May 24, 2000

Halfway through his two-hour, 20-minute concert at the Erwin Center on Monday night, Don Henley sang the new "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming," which debunks the existence of extraterrestrial visitors because why would anyone travel millions of miles to come to the land of junk food and theme parks? But then, another thing that might cause a space ship to make a U-turn is a sign that trumpets "An Evening With Don Henley."

It's ironic that the Linden native continually rails about the growing homogeny of modern life while playing the most pasteurized music imaginable. Doesn't he realize that he serves musical McNuggets with a backbeat? Has he forgotten that the soundtrack to the blanding of America was produced by his old band the Eagles, who made folk/country music palatable to the masses by coating it with caramel?

To be fair, Henley's seasoned rasp has never sounded richer, fuller than on Monday night and the concert had its share of stellar moments. A slowed-down "Boys of Summer" accented Henley's most poignant lyrics; the new single, "Workin' It," soared with the help of a gospel choir; and the stark rendition of "Talking to the Moon," from his first solo album in 1982, showed that the 52-year-old could create moments of magic without the hits. A delightfully trombone-driven "Hotel California" got the crowd on its feet at the two-hour mark, then there were the faithful, concert-ending versions of "The Long Run" and "Desperado" that found Henley finally reclaiming his past after spending most of the previous time onstage acting as if the shouts of "Eagles!" were from Philadelphia football fans.

Failing miserably, however, was an ill-conceived hip-hop version of "Life in the Fast Lane," with the humor-challenged Henley wearing a thick gold chain with a beatbox medallion. "When you've been doing a song for 25, 30 years, you have to try something different sometimes," the worst rapper since Warren Beatty rationalized to the embarrassed-for-him crowd of about 6,000. You can be sure the fans didn't pay $60 to hear Henley's newer tunes, which are basically cliches and catchphrases set to music, so why not give them "Life in the Fast Lane" the way they know and love it?

The top ticket price may seem steep for a guy who hasn't had a big hit since gas was 65 cents a gallon. But when you count up all the human extravagance onstage you can figure that Henley, the environmentalist who couldn't have loved the wide-open stretches in the upper balcony, didn't even break even. Besides the gospel choir (ungraciously stuffed in a back corner, behind a keyboard riser), seven horn players and a string section augmented the seven-piece core band. That the string players appeared only once, to try to elevate the young and the lifeless "Goodbye to a River," made it obvious that the tour was devised for the primary purpose of promoting the "Inside Job" album, which came out the day after the concert.

The show had the overall feel of a dress rehearsal for an upcoming VH-1 special, especially when Henley stopped "They're Not Here" midsong after botching some lyrics. Leave it to the calculated perfectionist to call for a do-over after singing the wrong words to a song no one in the audience had ever heard before.

Don Henley Reworks Some Eagles Classics At Austin Show

May 23, 2000, 10:20 am PT

Some things get better with time. However, on Don Henley's first solo album in 11 years, Inside Job, released Tuesday (May 23), the once irascible singer, songwriter, and drummer seems to have gone as mellow and fuzzy as the worst of his California contemporaries.

This plague affected much of the second show on Henley's summer tour in Austin, Texas on Monday (May 22) night. But by the end of the set, while playing some reworked classics, the former Eagle finally displayed the fire and creativity that has made his solo career even more artistically satisfying than his work with the Eagles.

Henley's Gothic cathedral stage set seemed out of place, looking like something bought from Ozzy Osbourne at a clearance sale. The show itself started with promise, thanks to near-letter-perfect versions of "Dirty Laundry" and "Sunset Grill." Perhaps almost too perfect, in fact, as his backing band sounded like graduates of the Musicians Institute of Technology -- all form, but little substance, playing like a great Don Henley cover band rather than the real thing, especially on the hackneyed leads from Henley's two guitarists.

Background vocals that sounded sampled didn't help matters much either. When Henley introduced "Workin' It" from the new album as a "valentine to corporate America," his acerbic intent was undercut by a tune that sounded as if it could be a car commercial. Dressed like a mannequin for Urban Outfitters, a trim and fit Henley was, however, in superb voice.

What Henley called "a more contemplative" take on "Boys of Summer" provided an offbeat surprise, though the reworking robbed the magnificent song of its original tension. "Goodbye to a River," his ode to the Texas Brazos River, was as lyrically turgid and muddy as the Brazos during a spring flood, lacking the bite of Henley's earlier social commentary. Henley's shield finally dropped while introducing "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming," his debunking of the UFO myth. When he mentioned extraterrestrials, a leather-lunged fellow in the audience at the University of Texas's Frank Erwin Center hollered out "Aggies!" -- UT's arch rivals at Texas A&M. When Henley stopped the song after the first verse, which he confessed that he'd forgotten, the U.T. Longhorn shouter again suggested to the crowd that Aggies were aliens, providing the biggest laugh of the evening.

Sadly, all seven of Henley's new songs sounded as if marriage and fatherhood has taken the wind from his creative sails. Musical augmentations by a horn section, strings, and a small African-American choir were nice touches, but hardly enough to kick the show into high gear.

But when Henley pulled a Bullworth by remaking "Life in the Fast Lane" into a hip-hop inflected rap, things started getting interesting. An encore version of "Hotel California" was an equally illuminating treat, tinged with a Jamaican ska flavor, and taken to the limit when a line of four trombonists played the melody of the song's original lead guitar coda.

The concert was capped with a final encore of "The Long Run," accented by horns, followed by "Desperado," sweetly iced by the vocals of the Black choristers. All told, a professional show. But with more of the sharpness found on Henley's earlier solo material and less of the sappy sentimentality that rules Inside Job, the concert could have gone from merely quite good to a truly special event.

Don Henley set list:

1. "Dirty Laundry"
2. "Sunset Grill"
3. "Workin' It"
4. "Taking You Home"
5. "Boys Of Summer"
6. "Everything Is Different Now"
7. "Last Worthless Evening"
8. "Talking to the Moon"
9. "Goodbye To A River"
10. "They're Not Here, They're Not Coming"
11. "End of the Innocence"
12. "New York Minute"
13. "For My Wedding"
14. "Nobody Else In The World But You"
15. "Life In The Fast Lane"
16. "Heart of the Matter"
17. "All She Wants To Do Is Dance"
First encore:
18. "Hotel California"
19. "Wasted Time"
Second encore:
20. "The Long Run"
21. "Desperado"

-- Rob Patterson

HENLEY DOESN'T GENERATE QUITE ENOUGH HEAT 

Boston Globe
By Steve Morse (Globe Staff)

 It was a
shockingly cold, windy night more appropriate for early November in
Don Henley's beloved Walden Woods than for early June on Boston
harbor. Some fans were even huddled in blankets, that's how bad it
was. The coffee ran out early and there were no more hot drinks
available. Rarely has there been a tougher night under the
FleetBoston Pavillion tent. Still, a near-sellout 4,801 fans came
to hear Henley's polished - sometimes too polished - set of solo
tunes, augmented by some unusual reworkings of his classic Eagles
songs. One Eagles tune, "Life in the Fast Lane," was given a
satirical rap interpretation, but it fell flat (and the crowd's
response was negligible). Another, "Hotel California," fared much
better with a unique ska arrangement starring a four-piece horn
section (the so-called "Dangerous Horns") rather than the lead guitar
of the original. It was just crazy enough to work, which it did. And
other Eagles songs, "The Long Run" and "Desperado," were done with
their innate integrity. The show was a benefit for Henley's Walden
Woods Project, hence the high ticket prices of "89.50 and $64.50,
which set a record at the tent. "Tonight we're celebrating the
10-year anniversary of the Walden Woods Project," Henley told the
crowd. "No speeches, just thanks a lot." But he still added a little
speech: "We need another $15 million, though. I didn't know what I
was getting into, but I wouldn't change a thing." Henley might want
to change some of the pacing of his show, however. It started
strongly with "Dirty Laundry" (his critique of sensationalist media)
and "Sunset Grill" (his groove-laden, late-night hit) and ended
strongly, but it had a weak middle in which he played too many
downtempo songs in a row. In this portion, he frequently alternated
new songs from his recent release, "Inside Job" (which he proudly said
entered the charts at No. 7, up there with Britney Spears and 'N Sync,
whose names received loud boos) with oder solo tunes. And most of
them were quiet, from new ballad "Taking You Home" to the older,
laid-back "Last Worthless Evening," then from the new ballad
"Everything is Different Now" to the older, also laid-back, "End of
the Innocence". On a cold, chilly night, this might not have been the
most prudent approach, because the crowd was restless to move and
dance and get some blood flowing. The turnaround came with "Boys of
Summer", prompting the crowd to jump up like pogo sticks. And Henley
kept the excitement brewing from then on, through "All She Wants to Do
is Dance" and a surprise "800 Years," *) with local musicians Jerry
O'Sullivan (on uillean pipes) and Mark Roberts (on pennywhistle)
joining in. It was a nice ending to a show that just needed more
punch in the middle."