Glenn Frey - No Fun Aloud

When Glenn Frey passed away back in 2016, it sort of sucked the fun out of pooping on his solo work. There was no doubting his talents as a writer, a singer, and honestly, as an underappreciated lead guitar player. However, Glenn also seemed to have a penchant for leaning into the syrupy side of pop.

After the Eagles imploded, you knew it was only a matter of time before the dynamic duo would start releasing solo albums, and it would be interesting to see who really had the Midas touch when it came to putting out music.

Glenn struck first in May of 1982 and released No Fun Aloud, and right off the bat it was like the most insipid and middle-of-the-road elements from The Long Run were being used as the template for what would constitute success. The one-two pillowy punch of "I Found Somebody" and "The One That You Love" got some play, but honestly, were pretty disappointing. There was a little life in the reworked "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" song "Partytown" - Glenn really did have a great voice when he wanted to use it. Sadly, the little bit of energy infused into the album was quickly sucked out of the room with the last two tracks on the first side, the worst offender being the inexplicably awful "I've Been Born Again," which I will admit to a little bit of schadenfreude imagining some hardcore Christian hearing it and thinking, "Glenn's been saved! Hallelujah, praise be!" Only to find out he was writing about a girl. Still, not a great song.

Side two opens with Glenn covering "Sea Cruise," and all that's missing is Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman reprising their roles as Chuck Clarke and Lyle Rogers. Then again, Ishtar didn't come out until 1987, so maybe this was a case of art imitating life being imitated by art and then pooped into a bag that's set on fire and then placed on a doorstep before ringing the bell and running away.

This is followed by more mid-tempo songs. It's like Glenn just wanted to put out a laid-back album that would be ideal for playing in the dark while you kissed your best girl. Maybe it was a good make-out album, but what if you're sitting in a room by yourself? This music won't exactly inspire an erection. Glenn finally lays one out cold with the album's closing track "Don't Give Up," but it's not enough to redeem the album. While it's likely the best rocker on the album, it's a song that, when stacked against the best of what was coming out that year, it wouldn't have been tall enough to ride the ride.

While the album did go gold, it must have felt like a gut punch to a guy who had sold millions of records with his old band. I suppose if there was any comfort, cold or otherwise, it was that Don Henley's first solo album, also released in 1982, only went gold too - so they were at least even. However, when Glenn released The Allnighter in 1984, it too went gold - but Don's Building the Perfect Beast in the fall of '84 would sell three million copies... going triple platinum.

I'm a little surprised at the vitriol I'm heaping on this, as frankly, when I found the album I was pretty excited to hear the deeper cuts on the album. I know I only paid a buck, and aside from a couple of pops and clicks on "That Girl," the album cleaned up really well. After forty years of waiting to hear this, perhaps my expectations were out of proportion. I'm generally pretty bloody forgiving and try to find the silver linings. After all, it's not like this really doesn't fit with the rest of his solo work, so why dump on it?

Fair question. I don't really have an answer, and frankly, maybe it's just a mood thing. If I was expecting a syrupy delight with a heaping dollop of bland R&B, maybe this would have ticked a few more boxes.

Then again, Glenn always seemed pretty self-aware, and he did call the album No Fun Aloud, except he spelled "allowed" incorrectly.