Eagles – Hotel California (2023 MFSL UltraDisc UHR SACD) (1976/2023) [SACD ISO]

Eagles – Hotel California (2023 MFSL UltraDisc UHR SACD) (1976/2023) [SACD ISO]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 43:32 minutes | Full Scans included | 1,81 GB
Genre: Classic Rock, Country Rock | Publisher (label): Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab – UDSCAD 2233

The moment the instantly recognizable intertwined guitar passage on the title track to the Eagles’ Hotel California begins, the record’s genius becomes obvious all over again. Ranked the 118th Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, certified by RIAA as the third best-selling LP in history, and looked upon as the foundation upon which the Golden State’s mid-’70s rustic music scene was built, the 1976 landmark is a music staple immune to shifts in trends, eras, and styles. Fearlessly addressing the chaos and consequences of American life, its songs remain strikingly prescient and gain credence with each passing day.Sourced from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD ensures you will want to permanently check into and never leave this particular Hotel California. Recognizing the importance of presenting this oft-reissued longtime audiophile favorite in spectacular sound, this numbered-edition disc plays with alluring clarity, organic richness, tube-like warmth, massive dynamics, and copious detail. You’ll be able to almost smell the colitas and feel the breeze in your hair. Songs feature front-to-back soundstages that allow the music incredible air, roominess, and separation.

Indeed, the opportunity to zero in on all the particulars of the Eagles record dubbed “a legitimate rock masterpiece” by vaunted Los Angeles Times scribe Robert Hilburn has never been better. A global phenomenon that marked the band debut of guitarist-singer Joe Walsh, Hotel California continues to resonate and connect with listeners of all generations taken by its narrative depth, stark directness, picturesque melodies, daring majesty, and passionate emotionalism. Adorned with a breathtaking exterior photograph of the Beverly Hills Hotel that serves as the simultaneously haunting and alluring cover art, and rounded out by a rear-cover shot of the Lido Hotel lobby that reinforces a notion that teeters between permanence and transience, Hotel California is brilliantly tied to a specific place that functions as a universally understood metaphor for the American Dream.

Confronting the darker undercurrents and oft-ignored constructs attached to that romantic notion, the record’s songs revolve around a host of shared themes: excess, mobility, stability, illusion, fame, destruction, and idealism included. Notably, Hotel California appeared at a crucial junction in American history: During the country’s bicentennial and amid escalating controversies related to the Vietnam War, energy crisis, governmental corruption, and more. That the Eagles manage to channel such cultural, social, and economical matters into a cohesive, stately, big-picture statement is alone a stupendous feat. That the album’s reach, boldness, vitality, accessibility, and understated intensity have never waned make it a marvel.

Reflecting on Hotel California 40 years after its original release, and indirectly explaining its enduring appeal and increasing relevance, singer-songwriter Don Henley confirmed the record pertains to the “loss of innocence, the cost of naiveté…the difficulties of balancing loving relationships and work, trying to square the conflicting relationship between business and art; the corruption in politics, the fading away of the Sixties dream of ‘peace, love and understanding.'”

It can be argued that Henley and company squarely hit on and drive home those ideas in the surreal title track, chart-topping “Life in the Fast Lane,” and grand “The Last Resort” alone. But that would miss the forest for the trees. Experienced as an unbroken whole, complete with the pristinely shot imagery and physical grooves, Hotel California unfolds like a geography-conscious saga by James Michener and plays like color-saturated movie shot on widescreen 70mm film by Martin Scorcese about our collective and individual decisions and shape of our past, present, and future. And, just like that conjured by our imaginations, Hotel California continues to take on a life of its own.

Tracklist:

01 – Hotel California
Guitar [Solo] – Don Felder, Joe Walsh / Lead Vocals – Don Henley
Percussion – Don Henley / Written-By – Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey
02 – New Kid In Town
Electric Guitar – Don Felder / Electric Piano, Organ – Joe Walsh
Guitarrón [Guitarone] – Randy Meisner / Lead Vocals – Glenn Frey
Written-By – Don Henley, Glenn Frey, John David Souther
03 – Life In The Fast Lane
Clavinet – Glenn Frey / Lead Guitar – Joe Walsh
Lead Vocals – Don Henley / Written-By – Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh
04 – Wasted Time
Lead Vocals – Don Henley / Organ – Joe Walsh
Piano – Glenn Frey / Written-By – Don Henley, Glenn Frey
05 – Wasted Time (Reprise)
Written-By – Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Jim Ed Norman
06 – Victim Of Love
Lead Guitar – Don Felder / Lead Vocals – Don Henley / Slide Guitar – Joe Walsh
Written-By – Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, John David Souther
07 – Pretty Maids All In A Row
Lead Vocals – Joe Walsh / Piano – Joe Walsh
Synthesizer – Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh / Written-By – Joe Vitale, Joe Walsh
08 – Try And Love Again
Guitar [Gretsch] – Joe Walsh / Lead Guitar – Glenn Frey
Lead Vocals – Randy Meisner / Written-By – Randy Meisner
09 – The Last Resort
Lead Vocals – Don Henley / Pedal Steel Guitar – Don Felder
Synthesizer – Don Henley, Joe Walsh / Written-By – Don Henley, Glenn Frey

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