The Eagles have some nerve.

OK, so that's not exactly a stop-the-presses newsflash. But even for a band whose reputation for rock-star excess earned them the nickname The Egos, this seems like a new stretch: Despite having sold somewhere in the neighbourhood of a bajillion copies of their two Greatest Hits collections -- not to mention the mega-million units they've shifted of their six studio albums -- the boys have issued a career-spanning, greatest-hits box set to sell people the same tracks all over again. It's gotta be the ultimate act of music-biz hubris.

Or at least that's how it would seem at first. Truth is, Selected Works: 1972 - 1999 is far from the cheap cash-grab you might think. For one thing, those old Greatest Hits discs only held 10 songs apiece, hardly a decent retrospective for a band as universally beloved as this California combo. For another, the albums -- like the rest of The Eagles' CD catalog -- were all issued back in the early days of compact discs and have never really been sonically upgraded. And neither of those old hits sets incorporates material from their on-again, off-again "resumption."

Selected Works addresses all those oversights over the course of four CDs containing 53 tracks. Unlike the chronological presentation typical in box sets, it opts for a thematic breakdown. Disc 1 covers The Early Years, when the original lineup -- Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, Don Felder and Randy Meisner -- were a country-rock outfit churning out breezy roots-pop fare like Take It Easy, Already Gone, Witchy Woman and Peaceful Easy Feeling. Disc 2 features The Ballads, with a baker's dozen Bic-lighter lite-rock anthems including Lyin' Eyes, Desperado, Best of My Love, New Kid in Town and Take it to the Limit. Disc 3, The Fast Lane, spotlights the band's later lineup -- Leadon and Meisner out, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit in -- and edgier, rockier and darker fare like Heartache Tonight, In the City, Life in the Fast Lane, King of Hollywood, The Long Run and, of course, Hotel California. Finally, Disc 4, The Millennium Concert, is the one that justifies the 1999 in the title. Its dozen tunes were recorded at the band's L.A. show last New Year's Eve and would make a perfect soundtrack to your party this year. Along with a version of Hotel California that you can't tell from the studio track but for the hard ending and applause, there's a cool, varied set list that includes Tom Waits' Ol' 55, Walsh's Funk 49, Henley's Dirty Laundry and All She Wants to do is Dance, the holiday cut Please Come Home for Christmas and even a Hendrix-style guitar solo version of Auld Lang Syne. What more could you want?

Well, now that you mention it, the box has one disappointment: Because the boys never worked on anything they didn't finish, there are no real surprises here. No long-lost cuts, no classic live tracks, no brilliant covers. The handful of outtakes consists of a mildly funny radio appearance clip, a one-riff John Lee Hooker parody and two sonic collages of leftover Long Run licks and studio-chatter silliness. It's neat to hear -- mainly because it's hard to imagine The Eagles ever enjoying themselves for any reason -- but it really only whets your appetite for something more substantial.

And no, despite being a four-CD set, Selected Works doesn't have every single Eagles track you might want (we were kinda surprised not to see Teenage Jail and Greeks Don't Want No Freaks, for instance). But, hey, they had to draw the line somewhere. Let's face it, the only perfect Eagles greatest-hits box would be an eight-disc set of all their albums in their entirety.

Even The Eagles don't have the nerve to try that. Yet.

Track Listing Disc1
  01.Take It Easy
  02.Hollywood Waltz
  03.Already Gone
  04.Doolin' Dalton
  05.Midnight Flyer
  06.Tequila Sunrise
  07.Witchy Woman
  08.Train Leaves Here This Morning
  09.Outlaw Man
  10.Peaceful Easy Feeling
  11.James Dean
  12.Saturday Night
  13.On The Border
 
  Disc2
  01.Wasted Time Reprise
  02.Wasted Time
  03.I Can't Tell You Why
  04.Lyin' Eyes
  05.Pretty Maids All In A Row
  06.Desperado
  07.Try And Love Again
  08.The Best Of My Love
  09.New Kid In Town
  10.Love Will Keep Us Alive
  11.Sad Cafe
  12.Take It To The Limit
  13.After The Thrill Is Gone
 
  Disc3
  01.One Of These Nights (Intro)
  02.One Of These Nights
  03.Disco Strangler
  04.Heartache Tonight
  05.Hotel California
  06.Born To Boogie
  07.In The City
  08.Get Over It
  09.King Of Hollywood
  10.Too Many Hands
  11.Life In The Fast Lane
  12.The Long Run
  13.Long Run Leftovers
  14.The Last Resort
  15.Random Victims Part 3
 
  Disc4
  01.Hotel California
  02.Victim Of Love
  03.Peaceful Easy Feeling
  04.Please Come Home For Christmas
  05.Ol' 55
  06.Take It To The Limit
  07.Those Shoes
  08.Funky New Year
  09.Dirty Laundry
  10.Funk 49
  11.All She Wants To Do Is Dance
  12.The Best Of My Love