This album remains a classic to this day, and sounds fresh still.  The Eagles were moving towards a rockier sound at this stage of their career, having scored a big hit with the most mainstream album of their career, 1975's "One Of These Nights".  With the darker images of that title track freshly on their mind, the band sought to use the newly adopted style to comment on the seamier side of life in Southern California.  The rougher, darker edge to their music perfectly complemented the biting commentary of "Hotel California", "Life In The Fast Lane" and "Victim Of Love".  But what truly separates this album is the styles they chose for the other songs.  "New Kid In Town", a tribute to the innocent youth moving into the dog-eat-dog music business, plays with a soft, pure country lilt; the slow, mournful blues of "Wasted Time" is in sharp contrast to the biting satire of the darker tunes; and the tone of "Try and Love Again" feels like jaded optimism.  Finally, the build of "The Last Resort" from near silence to a power anthem mirrors the fast-paced growth of not only the population of Southern California but also the growth of the arrival of the businesses willing to do anything to make a buck.  To suggest, as another reviewer has, that the Eagles were selling out to make more money, is not correct at all.  In fact, the band was thumbing its collective noses at the big businesses of the day, much like Tom Petty did in this decade with "The Last D.J.".  And if you can ever find a more thorough and biting commentary on the whirlwind that was SoCal in the late 1970's - buy it.  It would have to be amazing to outdo this one.