Debuts at number one, with 710,000 copies sold exclusively through Wal-Mart. Billboard traditionally excludes albums sold at only one retailer from its charts, but lifted the rule this week, mostly on the grounds that it would be absurd not to do so, the Times reports:

Many record executives privately criticized the unexpected shift, and some expressed fears that the shift might provide new incentive for artists to sell straight to retail chains like Wal-Mart, Starbucks and others.

Geoff Mayfield, the senior Billboard analyst who oversees the charts, played down any suggestions of strong-arming.

“We were not pressured. I did not get one phone call from Irving Azoff about this,” Mr. Mayfield said, referring to the Eagles’ talent manager, “and I did not get one phone call from Wal-Mart.”

Rather, Mr. Mayfield said, he made the change amid worries that the [sic] Billboard’s brand-name charts, regarded as the industry’s gold standard, were in danger of appearing out of sync with the music market.

Most of the reviews are overly respectful; in this context, you have to love the Guardian …

Self-importance is a given in the world of soft rock, but the Eagles’ double-disc comeback propels musical smugness to previously inconceivable proportions.

… and Mr. Jim Derogatis:

How do lyrics such as those, from “Frail Grasp on the Big Picture” and “Business as Usual,” square with the politics of Wal-Mart’s corporate honchos and what many critics call the company’s monopolistic, anti-labor, big business-uber-alles practices? They don’t, but consistency has never been the band’s strong point.