I would argue that the Eagles have always been better business people than FM. Always.
The Long Road Back to Eden (LRBE?) was impressively marketed. The Eagles and their management realized that their fans' age group were mainly going to big box stores, and they had the promotional deal with Walmart to sell LRBE (a double album) for $11.99 (SYW sold at closer to $19.00 retail). I'm not sure that LRBE was any better quality wise than SYW -- both are late albums from bands that had their heyday much earlier and were not current in any way. Also, 2003 was a transition point in music buying -- people were still doing some illegal downloading, which cut into sales, though SYW did debut at #3 which wasn't terrible. But the Walmart angle is huge.
I do think that The Eagles were far less experimental, which probably made LBRE more approachable. They knew what worked, and they continued to do it. I don't think it was necessarily stale, but LB was always focused on being different than what came before. That guiding principle gave us Tusk, which many of us love. But it's unlikely to generate big sales.
There are aspects of SYW that I still love. But like just about everyone else here, there are some songs I just don't like. And LB's production is kind of hit or miss for me -- I think it really works on WTWCT, Illume, Thrown Down, Destiny Rules, Miranda and a few others. I don't like it on RTTG, SG, EFO, SAY. I also don't like some songs -- Red Rover, Come, RTTG, GB, EFO.
All of that being said, I'm glad we got that album, because it's better than having nothing after The Dance (and no studio album after Time).
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