Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Leave the cynicism at the door as you check yourself into the palace of Eagles memories that come with the new release of their collected works and the advantage of a series of live songs from their 1976, 1980, 1994, 1999, and 2018 tours.
The cynic will point, righty, that the band have had more compilation releases placed before their fans than they have had studio albums, and yet there is something majestic to be felt in this recording than in many of the others to have born their songs under an illusion of essential listening or greatest hits, and whilst it feels strange to have two of the finest songs from the last studio release missing from this collection, namely Waiting In The Weeds and the title track brilliance of Long Road Out Of Eden, the sense of the essential is actually fitting.
It may be, as the cynic suggests a sense of easy money made before the band come back to England for a short set of performances, but that also belies the need for the group’s music to be shared beyond the generation that lifted them and the ones that venerated them, for in their lyrics there are lessons in craft and significance to be forever learned; and if this new release does one thing, if it introduces tracks that are more than just the radio favourites of Hotel California and Life In The Fast Lane to a wider audience then so be it, let it happen and chill in the realm where Eagles dared.
There is a rapid pulse of memory that responds to the stimuli of music that comes from tracks from the imploring opener of Take It Easy, the sublime Peaceful Easy Feeling, Tequila Sunrise, Desperado and Doolin’ Dalton, and into the heavy presences of Lyin’ Eyes, James Dean, New Kid In Town, Take It To The Limit, Busy Being Fabulous, as well as the previously mentioned Hotel California and Life In The Fast Lane, and when placed amongst live recordings from The Forum, Santa Monica, or even the Staples Centre, what comes across is a truth of vision, that these songs have lasted more than fifty years because they speak to the listener across time, that they are essential in name and deed
To The Limit – The Essential Collection is one of memory, a near catch all reminder of what made Eagles one of the greatest recording acts in history, and it is one of passionate beauty.
Ian D. Hall