I hate it when people can predict what I’m going to do in a
\nconversation or situation. My family is particularly good at this,
\nand it annoys me to no end. Why? I don’t like to be pegged down as
\ndoing this or that when something happens. Billy Joel must have
\nbeen feeling the same way in 1980. His previous albums had been
\ndeemed by the critics to be “soft” or “ballad heavy.” So what did
\nJoel do? He went out and recorded
\nGlass Houses<\/i>, a blatant attempt to prove the critics
\nwrong.<\/p>\n
Around the time of
\nGlass Houses<\/i>‘ recording, the music industry was changing
\nrapidly. Disco was now dead, and punk and new wave were starting to
\ntake shape. While very little of the songs on
\nGlass Houses<\/i> sound like punk, the attitude is relatively
\nsimilar. Joel’s albums always have had an edge to them, reflecting
\nthe darker side of humanity, and
\nGlass Houses<\/i> fits in well with that disillusionment. “Closer
\nTo The Borderline” features a man on the verge of snapping as the
\ntoils of life bear down on him. “Sleeping With The Television On.”
\n“I Don’t Want To Be Alone Anymore” deal with strong senses of
\nisolation and desires for companionship.
\nGlass Houses<\/i> is definitely not an upbeat album.<\/p>\n
That being said there are some positive moments on the album.
\nThe French Flavored ” C’etait Toi (You Were the One)” is pleasant
\nromantic number. One of the hits, the acoustic driven “Don’t Ask Me
\nWhy” is probably the most lightweight moment on
\nGlass Houses<\/i>, but that doesn’t detract from it’s quality.
\nMost people would know “You May Be Right” as the biggest hit, and
\nit is deserving of its success. It’s got a great chorus, and rocks
\nmore than the usual Bill Joel hit.<\/p>\n
As I said earlier,
\nGlass Houses<\/i> reflects the musical tastes that were en vogue
\nat the time. This is a stripped down, guitar oriented sound that
\nthe listener is presented with, very different from previous
\nalbums. “It’s Still Rock N Roll To Me” and “All For Leyna” very
\nmuch resemble the sound of ’80s rock. The latter’s opening
\nespecially reminds me of Toto’s “Hold The Line” And once again,
\nJoel turns in a very impressive vocal performance. Whether it be a
\ngritty, snarling vocal required for “You May Be Right” or shades of
\nfalsetto on “C’etait Toi” Joel is up to the task.<\/p>\n
The two Billy Joel albums I owned before
\nGlass Houses<\/i> were
\nThe Stranger<\/i> and
\nAn Innocent Man<\/i>, both records I would describe as “poppy.”
\nNow, both are favorites of mine, because good pop is, well,
\nenjoyable. However, the fact that
\nGlass Houses<\/i> was such an effective rock record was a
\nsurprise, and a welcome one. What does this teach us? Critics are
\nalways wrong…. except for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5760],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38224","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-billy-joel","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38224"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}