With his solo career fading,
Glenn Frey got serious on his fourth album, but many of the album's sentiments sounded strange coming from him. "He Took Advantage" was subtitled "Blues for Ronald Reagan," but it came more than three years after Reagan's retirement, and
Frey's 1984 song "Better in the U.S.A." could have served as Reagan's campaign song. On "I've Got Mine,"
Frey sang about how people in limousines don't care about "us," but when was the last time he was on the outside of a limousine looking in?
Frey was out of his league going for the kind of philosophical/political territory better handled by his old partner
Don Henley. So, although
Strange Weather signaled a new commitment by
Frey to his career, it missed the charts entirely. (The album concludes with "Part of Me, Part of You," an
Eagles-like tune used in the 1991 film
Thelma and Louise.) ~ William Ruhlmann