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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Driving With Your Eyes Closed., March 20, 2000
The Eagles are obviously considered a classic band. That said, Don Henley is the brightest, most original member of that band as a solo artist. He has only released three studio cds since 1982, and all of them are excellent recordings. His latest, Otherwise, is due in about a month, and I, like other fans, have waited 11 long years for this. Building the Perfect Beast (BTPB), is, I think, his best recording to date. Why? Well, aside from the hits "Boys of Summer", "All She Wants To Do Is Dance", "Not Enough Love In The World", "Driving With Your Eyes Closed" and "Sunset Grill" it has great album tracks like "Man With A Mission", "A Month of Sundays", "Land Of The Living", "Building The Perfect Beast" and "You're Not Drinking Enough." All the eleven tracks come together to form a classic cd. The recording quality and choice of instruments is excellent. It still sounds fresh 16 years later. The lyrics and music work together to form a more cohesive cd than 1982's I Can't Stand Still. While 1989's The End of the Innocence is probably more mature and refined than BTPB, BTPB has more edge to it, and possibly a fresher sound overall. I think any rock collector should not only have The Eagles, but should also have all three Henley (soon to be four) cds. However, if you only have money for one, Building the Perfect Beast is the one to own.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Light California rock shows Henley has solo potential, December 2, 2003
Of the ex-Eagles doing solo material, I so far have only gotten Don Henley's second solo album, Building The Perfect Beast. He gets a lot of help from guitarist Danny Kortchmar in music, songwriting, and keyboards. This is a nice exercise in light rock that still has hallmarks of the mellow California sound popularized by his ex-bandmates the Eagles, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff, and Linda Ronstadt. Even though Glenn Frey had more notable hits than him, Don Henley's reputation is more intact, as Frey meandered into poppy soundtrack music that alienated his old crowd."The Boys Of Summer" having been covered recently by DJ Sammy and AFI, makes me appreciate the original all the more. I mean an oontsa-oontsa remix or a punk cover clearly can never capture the wistful pain of trying to forget a lost time on the beach. Another variation on the wealth not being able to buy love is told on the leisurely "You Can't Make Love" featuring Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and harmonies and the HeartbreakersEBenmont Tench on keyboards. There's an added dimension to the theme, that one can make a promise and walk down an aisle, and "make a life for her that fits like a glove" but--you get the idea. The rocking "Man With A MissionEwith a 50's rock-and-roll sound, of someone out to have a rowdy partying time, such as running a few red lights, starting some fist fights, drinking a few beers. I was surprised this didn't make it on the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack, because thematically, this would fit. Charlie Sexton helps on guitar, as does Belinda Carlisle on harmonies. "You're Not Drinking Enough" has a trace of the country rock that popularized the Eagles. The idea here is trying to forget a woman and if "you still wanna hold her/you must not be drinkin' enough." The way he writes how men get stomped caught my eye: "She passed on your passion/and stepped on your pride/turns out you ain't quite so tough." "Not Enough Love In The World" is a timely song that has shades even today. "I know people hurt you bad/they don't know the damage they can do, and it makes me sad/how we knock each other down just like children on a playground." The tribal drums and chants of the title track is a jab at creating the ultimate person with motifs of the gods of Olympus and Methuselah. "Relieve all pain and suffering and lift us out of the dark/turn us all into Methuselah/But where are we gonna park?Eis a cheekily humorous question to the age old quest for immortality. Patty Smyth, J.D. Souther, and Martha Davis of the Motels contribute to the chants. The fuzzy bass synth in "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" makes this one of the most familiar songs by ear on the radio. Martha Davis and Patty Smyth help out here again. The tearful "A Month Of Sundays" is by far the best song here, on the reflections of a farmer now on hard times, a familiar sight during the Reagan era. The generation gap is shown with the more left of center grandson and the son-in-law, a Vietnam veteran who's dismissive: "That little punk, he never had to serve" The last few verses alone make a melancholy sunset. "Sunset Grill" is a social commentary on the mean city and the soul-draining effects it has. The subject here wants to leave, but here's the tragic joke: "What would we do without all these jerks anyway? Besides, all our friends are here." Henley gets a lot of help from varied musicians, such as some Heartbreakers, a woman from a Motel, and a woman who causes a Scandal. The light style rock does still give out that peaceful easy feeling of his former band, but his solo album shows he was the lynchpin of the Eagles.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much more than just another '80s record., August 6, 2001
Songwriting is no trifle matter to Don Henley. And although in the early 1970s the magic duo of Henley/Frey churned out hits with enough speed to allow for the production of four albums in four years, followed by an all-time best-selling Greatest Hits (Vol. 1) album even before the release of the Eagles' classic "Hotel California," he started to take things considerably slower in his post-Eagles solo career. The two years he took to follow up 1982's "I Can't Stand Still" with "Building the Perfect Beast" were actually the shortest time between any two of his solo albums; in part due to the fact that, as Henley explained, his collaboration with Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar worked along lines different from those he had established with Glenn Frey in the Eagles. These were not two guys sitting down together in a room with a guitar and a drum kit any longer: For Don Henley's second solo release, bowing to the musical developments of the 1980s, they relied heavily on synthesized sounds (Henley's tour promoting the album even featured an elaborate light show, something that would have been inconceivable for any of the Eagles' tours). And while making most of the songs on the album easily "listenable" and producing several top-selling singles ("All She Wants to Do Is Dance," "Sunset Grill," "Boys of Summer" and "Not Enough Love in the World"), that choice of instrumentation also seemed to render "Building the Perfect Beast" the most easily dateable of all of Henley's solo releases.
Lyrically, however, Henley had lost nothing of his bite; the album's very name is indicative of that fact. "We're the ones who can kill the things we don't eat," he warned in the title track, musically the edgiest song on the album (synthesizers or not) - "we have met the enemy, and he is us ... the secrets of eternity; we've found the lock and turned the key ... all the way to Malibu from the Land of the Talking Drum, just look how far we've come." "Sunset Grill" and "A Month of Sundays" lament the death of small mom-and-pop farms and businesses and their takeover by large corporations; a criticism of Reaganomics Henley would take up even more forcefully in 1989's "The End of the Innocence." (Ironically, his beloved Sunset Grill in L.A. later went down that very same path, too - "Don't Go There," he therefore quipped during the closing appearance of his recent "Inside Job" tour, "it ain't there anymore. Even though it still has the same name. Even though the guy has my name on the menu. Don't go there!") "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" has a similar theme, focusing on corporate and political greed in general. "The Boys of Summer," musically based on a guitar riff supplied by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, is a warning not to look back and romanticize the past but rather, to look toward the future - just keep your eyes open whatever you do, though, because if you're Driving With Your Eyes Closed "you're gonna hit somethin' ... but that's the way it goes."
As on all of his solo releases, Henley was able to secure the collaboration of a virtual all-star cast of musicians, from Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench to Randy Newman, Patty Smyth, Belinda Carlisle, Richard and Waddy Wachtel, Toto's Steve Porcaro and David Paich, "inofficial Eagle" J.D. Souther, and many, many more. And despite the seeming bow to the 1980s' musical tastes in the instrumentation of many of the album's tracks, their lasting quality becomes apparent like on no other occasion when Henley performs them live, as he did on his recently-concluded tour. Stripped of some of their fancy effects, they stand up even more visibly to the class of his other work, both with the Eagles and solo - and you just have to have heard that stunning, several minutes' long drum/percussion intro (not even performed by Henley himself) to "All She Wants to Do Is Dance," the closing song of the tour's regular program.
"Building the Perfect Beast" cemented Don Henley's standing as a solo artist, and it paved the way for his biggest release to date, "End of the Innocence." As he had done with his bandmates a decade earlier, Henley again proved that he was able to create something lasting, in whatever format he chose. Maturity added more focus to his work (lyrically if nowhere else); and vocally, many of the tracks on this album are among the most demanding he has ever written. Unlike the output of the era's countless hair bands, disco kings and queens and punk bands, all of Don Henley's first three solo releases still have a large enough audience to warrant their inclusion in the catalogue of every major record store - including the seemingly so 1980s-sounding "Building the Perfect Beast."
Also recommended:
The End of the Innocence
Don Henley Live - Inside Job
The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
Selected Works: 1972-1999
Hotel California
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by Don Henley 
