The Comeback Kids

I thought it was time to give over a few lines to two "giants" of music past and present, who both returned from the wilderness (if not the tabloids in one of the cases) this past couple of weeks. I speak, of course, of The Eagles and Britney Spears.

Let's start with Brit. Obviously, all has not been well in the land on Brit over the past few years - marrying K-Fed kind of gave that away. So, partied, she had the kids, she partied, she went out minus underwear, she shaved off all her hair, she lost custody of the kids blah blah blah.

So, all eyes were on her when news of a musical comeback hit the headlines. Her performance of her debut single of the new opus at the MTV awards, failed to remove thoughts that she was still out of it; although most admitted 'Gimme More' was actually ok, for what it was. The album too has gotten a surprisingly warm reception. Is it deserved???

Well, I'll admit this isn't the car crash I thought it might be, but it is still a collection of tunes that could have been on Rhiannon's album and many other artists (Rachel Stevens for example) besides. The songs a slickly produced with Brit's voice treated to once again try and hide/enhance the fact that she can't really sing. But, there is some quite fun stuff here all the same: 'Piece of Me'; 'Break the Ice'; and 'Ooh Ooh Baby' - which seems to have a Glitter Band drum sound (sample?) are all songs I would like to see released as singles.

So, mostly crap, but some moments of fun.

The Eagle's meanwhile, left it 28 years between albums. The good news is that it sounds just like the Eagles. The bad news is that it sounds just like the Eagles. Also to make up for the time-gap, we get a double CD and 21 tracks. This is a shame right off, as all this succeeds in doing is highlighting how much of the combined record is sub standard filer.

This is not to say it is all bad, far from it, but - for me - there is just not enough quality on here. You could (and they should have) make one reasonable record out of the material here, if you grabbed tracks like How Long, Somebody, Business as Usual, Fast Company, Last Good Time in Town and Long Road out of Eden.

Find online and just download the tracks you like would be my advice for both records.