The Long Run

What an exhausted-feeling album this is. Released in 1979, about two and a half years after the celebrated Hotel California (1976), the Eagles' sixth album has heavily dragging sound and almost excessively sweet melodies everywhere. It expresses the weary Eagles in full scale.

America, still carrying the air of a festival's aftermath following its bicentennial, seems present here too. As if to cover an incurable exhaustion with a decadent sound, these songs have a dark tonal beauty, sweetly fragrant like overripe fruit just before it begins to rot. That dreamy forbidden appeal is unmistakable.

The album reached No. 1 in America. ‘Heartache Tonight’ also topped the singles chart, while ‘I Can't Tell You Why,’ with a poignant falsetto from new member Timothy B. Schmit, reached No. 8. They overcame the pressure of their predecessor and made a richly fulfilled album. And yet... the group broke up afterwards. Still, ‘The Sad Cafe,’ with its memorable David Sanborn saxophone, deserves a place among their finest songs.