An Album Review Essay Sample of the Studio Album, ''Hotel California'' By the Eagles

An album refers to a collection of musical racks assembled in a disk by the artists. They are collected together to reach to the customers more easily with a set of music as a whole. In this case, the artists may also come together and write record and produce the music at the same time and decide to condense them in one album for marketability. It also signifies cooperation and unity of purpose in their part. The paper is focusing and centering on the case of the album titled ''Hotel California'' album with a whole lot of matters surrounding it being comprehensively brought to light. Such details range from the name of the artists and vocals, the year of writing, recording and mass production, the tracks contained in it, the category of the music it belongs, a specific genre of such its rock music and the tracks contained herein, and many more of the other details pertaining the album. Also, the bibliographical information regarding the life histories of the artists including where they come from and who they are is exhaustively discussed. Also, the genres they have worked on alongside the specific chronology of the rock music history that they are placed in and what they are famously known for are discussed in the subsequent paragraphs. The motivating role models of such artists are also exposed beside the fan's reaction to their artistic music. Emphasis is also made on each of the three tracks of the album, detailing their nature. As the paper approaches wrapping up, content on the critical interpretation and opinion on the album's nature is exposed.

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The album, ''Hotel California'' is categorized as rock music. It was produced in the year 1976 by the Eagles band. The artistic writes of the song are Glenn Frey, Don Felder, and Don Henley. The executive producer of the album is Bill Szymczyk. Generically, it is specified as soft rock music. It is characterized by the application of slow to mid-tempos and largely featuring the acoustic guitars. They all compose the characteristics of the soft rock music under which the genre is classified. There is a variety of musical instrumentation that was applied in the production of the ''Hotel California'' album and its constituent three tracks. They are the use of 12 and 6 string electric guitars, drums, 12 string acoustic guitar, backing vocals, Lead vocals, and bass instruments (Hua, Wen. 34) The artists chose them under the guidance of the executive producer Bill Szymczyk because they were regarded as the most fitting instrumentation accompaniments according to the nature of the music, being the soft rock genre. The music's vocals would then augur well with the instrumentation accompaniments, producing the maximum expected effect is soothing the listeners.

Additionally, a number of tracks compose the ''Hotel California'' album. They are the Hotel California, New Kid in Town, Life in the first lane, Wasted Time, Wasted Time Reprise, Victim of Love, Pretty Maids All In Raw, and The Last Resort. All of such tracks have their own whole details of existence surrounding them. They were composed by their respective artists within the Eagles band and brought together forming ''Hotel California'' album (Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley. 42) The artists of the album Hotel California are Glenn Frey, Don Felder, and Don Henley; all having their respective bibliographical histories in the musical art industry. First, Glenn Frey was an American songwriter, singer, and also among the founders of Eagles band. He was the front man and the lead singer of Eagles band. Majorly, he specialized in the lyrical art, a role he came to lay in the Eagles band. He also played keyboards and guitars while also singing lead vocals of the songs that comprised the ''Hotel California'' album. He also played a role in singing the lead vocals of various other songs such as the ones titled Already Gone, Tequila Sunrise, Peaceful Easy Feeling, James Dean, Heartache Tonight and Lyin Eyes. E managed to live between the years 1948 - 2016 where he died from various conditions which had affected his various body parts such as joints; the rheumatoid and colitis. The Eagles band broke up in 1980 and he embarked his own successful solo music career. He then produced the famous top 40 hits such as the ones titled Smuggler's Blues, Sexy Girl, and The Heat is On, Soul Searchin, Livin Right, True Love, and You Belong to the City. He won the Grammy Awards and the five American Music Awards along his musical career.

Besides, there is the artist Don Felder in the Eagles band, born in Florida in the year 1947. He was an American songwriter and musician. He was best known by being a lead guitarist in the Eagles Band, which he took art from the year 1974 until 2001 when he was dismissed. He took part in the production f the songs titled Already Gone, Good Day in Hell, and Hotel California. He also took part as a lead vocal in the Eagles Band, especially in the song titled Visions. Moreover, he co-wrote the song titled Visions with the artist Don Henley, while arranging the bass line and the distinctive guitar solo of the track. After the 1980 breakup of co Eagles band, he concentrated his focus on family matters alongside a solo music career and the composition of film and session work. He was a session guitarist on the 1981 album Living Eyes of the Bees Gees. He also composed solo music entitled the Airborne in the year 1983 (Tucker, Mike, and Charles Faddis.89) He is famous for the use of Gibson EDS - 1275 and Gibson Les Paul electric guitars.

The last artist of the ''Hotel California'' album is Don Henley. He was born in the year 1947 and contributed much to the musical industry. He was an American songwriter, record producer, singer, musician and a founding member of the Eagles band. He was a co-lead vocalist and drummer in the band, from 1971 to 1980 when the band was disbanded. He sang lead vocals in the band such as music titled; Get Over It, Life In the first lane, Best of my love, one of these nights and Hotel California. After the 1980 breakup of the Eagles band, he practiced solo singing of the songs such as those titled the end of innocence, Sunset Grill and The Boys of Summer.

The interpretation and opinion of the meaning and the historical significance of the album, ''Hotel California'' is that it comprises of tracks relaying insightful messages on drug addiction, relationships, and how human beings should correlate in everyday life. Most of its tracks were recorded in the 1970s hence playing a great role in preserving the histories of such times for posterity.

Works cited

Hoskyns, Barney. Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley, 2006. Internet resource.

Hua, Wen, et al. "Short text understanding through lexical-semantic analysis." Data Engineering (ICDE), 2015 IEEE 31st International Conference on. IEEE, 2015.

Tucker, Mike, and Charles Faddis. Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq. Lanham: Lyons Press, 2010. Internet resource.