For the third time in four weeks, an album debuts at #1. Hell Freezes Over by the Eagles marked their return to recording and performing together after a fourteen-year break up/hiatus. The album is in two parts. The first four songs are new material recorded in a studio. The remaining eleven songs are all live versions of older songs. This is the second Eagles album I've reviewed; I did Eagles Live almost 14 years ago.
Unlike The Dude, I do not hate the f-in Eagles, man (*). According to last.fm, I have listened to the Eagles over 1800 times. I haven't listened to Hell Freezes Over very much, around 40 times as of this writing. I think that's because there's only four new songs and the rest are live versions, and in general I prefer studio versions of songs. The new songs are pretty good, both Get Over It and Love Will Keep Us Alive charted well on the radio. The live versions are interesting, with different instrumentation and arrangements than the studio versions.
Overall my recommendation is to listen to the Eagles, and listen often. Hell Freezes Over isn't bad, and perhaps worth a listen, but their other albums are much better.
(*) I made a Big Lebowski reference in my previous Eagles review, too!