If Glenn Frey is such a soul man – obsessed, as he puts it in the liner notes, with "this Al Green-Memphis thing" – why is his most passionate singing on this album dedicated to the glories of working out? Maybe the ex-Eagle confuses fascination with familiarity, enthusiasm with ability. In any event, it takes more to make a soul song than a few blue notes and an ersatz Stax-Volt groove....

Well, what d'ya know? A happy song!" explains Glenn Frey in his liner notes to this debut solo LP, enthusing over the sultry pump and sweet-and-sour soul picking of the lead-off track, "I Found Somebody." Well, what d'ya know? A happy ex-Eagle. Having been weighed down for ten years by the poisoned delights and sundown despair of the California dream, Frey–the high, resonant voice of "Lyin'...