Inside Job
From AwardAnnals
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| Artist(s) | Don Henley |
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| Label | Warner Bros / Wea |
| Honors | |
| Often taken to task for the maudlin mellowness of his back catalog, Don Henley’s viewpoint on Inside Job is frequently as astringent as any of the best of his solo work, if refreshingly more stylistically diverse. Whether skewering the self-absorbed target of “Nobody Else in the World but You” with some welcome funk or lambasting the corporate co-opting of Mother Nature in “Goodbye to a River,” Henley still wears his heart proudly on his sleeve. But the changes in his life have also blunted a previous propensity for self-righteousness into something more… | |
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
Often taken to task for the maudlin mellowness of his back catalog, Don Henley’s viewpoint on Inside Job is frequently as astringent as any of the best of his solo work, if refreshingly more stylistically diverse. Whether skewering the self-absorbed target of “Nobody Else in the World but You” with some welcome funk or lambasting the corporate co-opting of Mother Nature in “Goodbye to a River,” Henley still wears his heart proudly on his sleeve. But the changes in his life have also blunted a previous propensity for self-righteousness into something more akin to subtle, resigned irony, and this album wears it well, especially on strangely downbeat “celebrations” like “For My Wedding.” Featuring a typically all-star cast of guest musician pals (including Stevie Wonder, Randy Newman, Glenn Frey, and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench), coproducer Stan Lynch (formerly of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers) has helped Henley fashion a more timeless, deftly shaded production envelope that should age better than most. Though he still can’t help lament his world’s hardening and loss of innocence (to the point of “They’re Not Here, They’re Not Coming,” echoing Randy Newman’s “Trouble in Paradise” nostalgic plea to “bring back the Duke of Earl”), Henley does it here with a subtle grace that may just win him a few new, late-blooming fans. It’s an album that underscores how quickly life’s fine wine can unexpectedly turn to vinegar. —Jerry McCulley
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With Inside Job, Don Henley—the Voice Of AOR—returns, proudly married-with-kids and armed with another polished state-of-the-zeitgeist summary of the moral preoccupations of his baby-boom generation…or at least its winners. This is intermittently haunted by human frailty (“Damn It Rose”), corporate culture (“Workin’ It”), environmental issues (“Goodbye To A River”) and lives of “too many blessings” (“My Thanksgiving”). As uniformly serious in tone as it is pristinely rockin’ in intent, Inside Job is the first release in a decade from the quintessential California music industry insider, following ten years of charity work, a monster Eagles reunion and the odd legal wrangle. Sure to be respectfully and profitably received regardless, it nevertheless strives for fresh musical energy, driven by Henley’s pop-rock instincts and pedigree collaborators (Stevie Wonder, Glenn Frey, sundry Tom Petty sidemen and Randy Newman, whose savage, mischievous satire is repeatedly echoed, in tamer fashion, in tracks like “They’re Not Here, They’re Not Coming”). Predictably, family matters loom large in the ex-hedonist’s universe, with “Taking You Home” and the oddly resigned-sounding “For My Wedding” weighing in on the side of commitment and a self-loathing, witchy-woman-dissin’ “Miss Ghost” in the opposite (hotel room) corner. Nevertheless, Inside Job’s “lessons of humility” are more frequent than we’ve a right to expect of anyone whose previous band’s Best Of sold 26 million copies. Even if, when Henley decries a world of “no authenticity, no sign of soul/The radio won’t play George and Merle”, you can’t help thinking it’s because radio’s still playing the Eagles’ “Hotel California” on continuous loop. —Jennifer Nine
