Hotel California

 (243 customer reviews)

If you were around in the late 70's and were within earshot of rock and pop radio, you heard the Eagles' 'Hotel California' and if you've listened to classic rock radio since then and till today, you are familiar with this album many times over, possibly even sick of it (as you might be with Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours', Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon' and most of Led Zeppelin), as you might be sick of Eagles music in general. However, just this Christmas day, I was with family, and the household happened to have a superb DVD/Dolby surround setup and the man of the house received the DVD-A of 'Hotel California' as a gift. He put it on, and I was there to experience this already time-honored album in glorious multi-channel surround sound. If you thought you've heard enough of the Eagles' best album, you ought to give this a chance -- the classic title track alone makes it worth the purchase. You will hear cymbal swells, guitar parts separated and panned, vocals and all that...Read more

Hotel California was the first Eagles album to feature Joe Walsh. By combining with Don Felder, they created a potent tandem and pushed the band to a harder sound. Like many other residents in the state, the band are not native Californians. Despite that fact, they have become synonymous with Southern California. On this album, they examine all the high and lows of the land of hopes and dreams. The word classic is thrown around a little too often, but the album's title track is one of only a handful of songs that are worthy of the title. From the opening guitar riff, to the cynical and vivid lyrics to the closing guitar coda, the song is a tour de force. Don Henley sings with a snarl in his voice and Mr. Walsh and Mr. Felder trade guitar licks in a can you top this fashion. The song is a masterpiece, became their third number single, won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year and one never tires of hearing it. "New Kid In Town" was the album's other number single and...Read more

My copy of the Japanese SACD arrived today. Owning two Oppo BDP-93s, I hooked both up to the same receiver and compared both editions. Confirming another review, the SACD is indeed presented a bit louder than the DVD-Audio. However after over an hour of listening, I can hear no discernable difference between the audio portions of these discs. Yes, both come from the exact same 5.1 master. In fact, even the disc labels on both are practically identical, one indicating SACD emblems and the other DVD-Audio. So no new sonic revelations over the 2001 DVD-Audio release. One advantage for the SACD is that it will play in all CD players as it is a hybrid. One advantage to the DVD-Audio is the on-screen presentation of the lyrics and many photos. The best news is that, even at Amazon's current price, the SACD is a steal compared to the prices being asked for the out of print DVD-Audio. My biggest hope is that these discs from Japan will bring about renewed interest in 5.1 sound...Read more