1976 was a make-or-break year for Steve Miller. His last album,
\nThe Joker<\/i>, had been released three years before, and he was
\nfinally making a return to the public eye after a health-related
\nlayoff. But with his return, many questions remained: Would Miller
\nstill have the magic that he produced with
\nThe Joker<\/i>? Would Miller still be relevant to a changing
\nmusic scene? Would people still remember Miller – or care about
\nhim?<\/p>\n
The answers flooded in like the radio-friendly hits Miller
\ncreated for the next few years.
\nFly Like An Eagle<\/i> proved that Miller was still a viable and
\nrelevant musical force, and the Steve Miller Band returned to all
\ntheir glory. No less than three hit singles came from this album,
\nwhile other tracks were pulled for the eventual “greatest hits”
\npackage.<\/p>\n
All of this said, I’m about to try and crack the silver lining
\nof this cloud: While this album is quite good, it is not a perfect
\nalbum, and is a bit of a letdown following
\nThe Joker<\/i>. (Hold off on your flame mails until you finish
\nreading the review; if you still don’t agree after that, then let’s
\ntalk.)<\/p>\n
For starters, there is no denying that some of the songs on
\nFly Like An Eagle<\/i> are classics, and deserve to be revered in
\nthat fashion. Cuts like “Take The Money And Run,” “Rock’n Me” and
\nthe title track all have not lost an ounce of their magic over the
\npast two decades – even if “Fly Like An Eagle” is a little too
\ntrippy at times. (Obviously, it wasn’t too bad for the U.S. Postal
\nService, who have made the song their new advertising jingle.)<\/p>\n
Ironically, the best song on
\nFly Like An Eagle<\/i> is one that, to the best of my knowledge,
\nnever made it to the singles bins. “Serenade” is a rocker that is a
\nkiller; with its infectious rhythms and guitar lines, as well as
\nMiller’s smooth-as-whiskey vocal delivery, this is a
\n“coulda-shoulda-woulda” song, and one that is due for an unearthing
\nby some classic rock station soon.<\/p>\n
“Serenade,” “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Wild Mountain Honey” are
\nall songs that eventually made it onto the
\nGreatest Hits 1974-1978<\/i> collection, and each track is well
\nworth the distinction. “Dance, Dance, Dance” is guaranteed to throw
\na curve ball at some listeners due to its country-fried flavor, but
\nis a decent enough track that should get your foot tapping.<\/p>\n
A good portion of the remainder of
\nFly Like An Eagle<\/i>, unfortunately, is filler – though it’s
\nlistenable filler, not like some of the effluvia groups stuff
\nalbums with. “You Send Me” would have been a more convincing cover
\nhad Miller not done a voice-over of pillow-talk, trying to coo his
\ninamorata into a moment of abandon. (Maybe I’m just pissed that it
\nnever worked for
\nme<\/i>.) “Mercury Blues” is one track that I frankly cannot get
\ninto, and is the weakest link on this album’s chain. “The Window”
\nis a decent instrumental, while “Blue Odyssey”and “Sweet Marie” are
\npassable, at best.<\/p>\n
\nFly Like An Eagle<\/i> is still an album that is well worth your
\ntime to check out, but if you’re looking for something that
\ntranscends the “best-of” collections, this one might not be worth
\nyour time. If, however, you want to go past what you hear on the
\nradio and hear the artist, scars and all, then definitely add this
\none to your shopping cart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5684],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38917","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-steve-miller-band","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38917"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}