In ‘After Hours,’ Glenn Frey’s unlikely goodbye carries a hidden slyness

Few who followed the Eagles through the 1970s could’ve envisioned Glenn Frey coming to roost on “After Hours,” the singer and guitarist’s slick 2012 solo album of old-school vocal pop.

Not because rockers don’t do standards, of course: Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney dug through the Great American Songbook before the former Eagle did, and Bob Dylan and Annie Lennox went there after.

Indeed, it was Frey’s old pal Linda Ronstadt who set a template for this kind of thing 30 years ago with her extended (and super-successful) collaboration with the arranger Nelson Riddle.

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But beneath the Eagles’ famously sun-warmed sound ran a pretty cold-blooded view of romance and celebrity. And here was Frey, the guy who sang about “your lyin’ eyes” with more than a little recognition, crooning, “I love you for sentimental reasons,” over tinkling wine-bar piano.

The way the Eagles saw it, nobody did anything -- least of all love someone -- for sentimental reasons.

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Glenn Frey - A collection of memorable songs.

So it seems safe to say that Frey, who died Monday at age 67, didn’t intend for “After Hours” to be his final artistic statement. He wasn’t reflecting on a life’s philosophy the way David Bowie appears to have been doing with his death-obsessed “Blackstar.”

In a way, though, that’s what’s sort of great -- and maybe a bit characteristic after all -- about the album.

For one thing, Frey’s light touch refreshes material that’s grown bogged down with the weight of endless interpretation -- tunes like “The Look of Love” and “The Shadow of Your Smile,” which Frey delivers with an appealing nonchalance, as though they’re ditties he just dashed off in an afternoon.

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Glenn Frey, circa 1970. The founding member of the Eagles died at age 67 on Jan. 18.

  (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

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Glenn Frey performs with the Eagles at the Oakland Coliseum in 1977.

  (Richard McCaffrey / Getty Images)

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The Eagles, with special guest Jackson Browne (second from left), perform onstage at the Chicago Stadium on Oct. 22, 1979. Pictured are, from left, Timothy B. Schmit, Browne, Glenn Frey, Don Henley (on drums), Joe Walsh and Don Felder.

  (Paul Natkin / Getty Images)

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The Eagles perform on the TV show “Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert” in 1979. From left: Don Felder, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey.

  (Fotos International / Getty Images)

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Glenn Frey performs onstage at the Petrillo Band Shell during the Chicago BluesFest on July 4, 1985.

  (Paul Natkin / Getty Images)

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The Eagles, clockwise from upper left, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmidt, Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glen Frey, pose before their “MTV Unplugged” taping in 1994.

  (Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times)

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Don Henley, left, and Glen Frey perform at an “MTV Unplugged” taping inside the Warner Bros. sound stage on April 25, 1994.

  (Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times)

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Glenn Frey of the Eagles performs onstage during the 16th annual Race to Erase MS event at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on May 8, 2009 in Century City.

  (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)

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Glenn Frey performs at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena in Northern Ireland in 2009.

  (Peter Morrison / Associated Press)

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The Eagles’ Glenn Frey performs on Day 3 of the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.

  (C Flanigan / Getty Images)

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Glenn Frey on Jan. 19, 2013 at the premiere of the film “History of the Eagles Part 1.”

  (George Frey / EPA)

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Glenn Frey performs with the Eagles at Muhammad Ali’s Celebrity Fight Night XVI in Phoenix in March 2010.

  (Ralph Freso / Associated Press)

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Glenn Frey performs with the Eagles at Qantas Credit Union Arena on March 2, 2015 in Sydney, Australia.

  (Don Arnold / WireImage)

Even “Here’s to Life,” that potentially dramatic toast to the end of the road, becomes a lark in Frey’s hands.

Was he consciously undermining the big emotions in these songs? And was the album’s assembly-line production saying something about pop’s easy commodification (a very Eagles idea)?

When Frey spoke about the record to The Times in 2012, he suggested that its sound was his attempt to stave off the boredom of checking into “Hotel California” yet again.

Yet there’s a hidden slyness to these renditions that gives “After Hours” the feel of a killer set-up.

You keep waiting for the punch line, and now it’ll never come.

Twitter: @mikaelwood