Well, Old Man Henley is back with his latest, Inside Job, and though it may not sell as many units as Innocence, it'll be enough to get you out on that deck again, if only with a lite beer. "Nothing Else in the World But You," is the opener, and it's a funky cut, in a "Dirty Laundry" meets Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" kind of way. Henley's raspy voice is still intact, and though his range is limited, he knows how to fit it into the material. To embellish the vocals, there's often a choir behind him. As a matter of fact, there's a gospel-like undercurrent to many of the songs. "Taking You Home," for example, is a synth-laden junket, which brings a boatload of voices along for the chorus. It's the kind of song that'll saturate the soft rock radio stations, and soon you'll be sick from overplay, but in a year or so when you hear it, you'll remember, and think what a nice little tune it is.

With ten years to put a disc together, you'd hope for a polished product, and Henley, who collaborated with Stan Lynch (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), doesn't let you down. The production is thicker than steak sauce, with a big ambient sound. Henley mentions that "lyrically, thematically, the album is more or less a diary of the last eleven years. Lots of changes." And he's not kidding. A champion of the environment, he has raised money for the Walden Project. In 1994, his Los Angeles house was destroyed by an earthquake, and he reunited with the Eagles on the "Hell Freezes Over" tour. He married in 1995, had a daughter and then a son, built a house and a recording studio in Dallas, and, well, as the disc proves, he's been busy. And if you want a good laugh, check out his battle for a domain name (http://www.don-henley.com/domain/dispute.htm), which will show you just how crazy this world is getting.

Bottom line? If you liked Innocence, you'll get more of the same here, but from an older, wiser Henley. He's aged like a fine wine, hasn't gone off like some of his contemporaries, and is best served up whenever the finer stuff is called for. And if he doesn't put out another album ever, calls it quits to stay at home with the kids, well, this will serve quite nicely as his farewell to the music world.

And given that, this may be a disc that finds a solid home with drummers, but leaves many others by the wayside, or finds its way into hip restaurants as background music. There's some cool stuff here to be sure; the Art Blakey cut is a big, bold number that will remind you of the driving force behind the Jazz Messengers. Likewise, the Kenny Clarke cut has an industrial Arabic feel to it, that'll make you feel like you're running through an open air market. And the Roy Haynes is a cool, techno-throbbing piece, with some heavy synth work snaking in and out.

But the short end is that unless you're a musician, or know the drummers the pieces relate to, you may not appreciate the work here. The rhythmic pounding, with assorted noises and overdubs, may not sustain your interest, leaving you, the listener, out 17 bucks, and wondering how this guy drums for the Stones but puts out a disc like this. It's not like these guys will be touring this stuff.

Perhaps Watts himself understands the precarious problem the disc creates. Referring to the work, he said, "I don't know how to judge this record, really. I just find I like it, but I don't know why because it's not what I normally like. Each time I've done a recording I could say, 'Well, I don't care if you don't like it because Gershwin wrote that beautiful song and I think we do it beautifully,' Whereas with this, I don't know what to think. It's kind of uncharted territory. But I'd like to think of it as sounding 'tomorrow' rather than 'yesterday'." And he should know.