Billy Joel - Storm Front

Probably less than a month ago I reviewed Billy Joel’s River of Dreams album, which was the album that followed Storm Front. I hated River of Dreams. I am not sure how much I have to add here, except that I like this album, on the whole. I feel like most of the singles he is known for are on this album, and some are of a high quality. I have stated previously that I really like “Down-easter ‘Alexa,’” but “That’s Not Her Style,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “I Go to Extremes,” “Storm Front,” “Leningrad,” “…And So It Goes,” are all Billy Joel standards, and I would say I like most of them. As the singles are something like ¾ songs on the album I suppose I like the album.

But my enjoyment doesn’t lessen my intense ennui as far as Billy Joel goes. A lot of these songs sound very standard, and of the standout singles I have some serious provenance issues. Let’s take “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” Go listen to it, you can probably find it on youtube. Now once you’ve done that, go listen to “It’s the End of the World as we Know It” by REM. REM’s came out first. They are clearly different songs, and yet their similarity has always bugged me. Given Billy Joel’s borrow-happy track record I have no doubt he was listening to REM when he wrote WDSTF. What is more galling is that looking at this record again in light of River of Dreams, it seems like he tried to borrow the album structure of the latter album…from himself:  few energetic songs up front, followed by a sprinkling of socially conscious songs, a tear jerker, and a more energetic outro. In particular the similarity between “Leningrad,” the seventh song on River of Dreams, and “Lullabye,” the seventh track on River of Dreams, seems like a blatant admission of laziness.

There are other issues with this album, but hell I might as well keep it. The songs are fun and at least it’s not as big a crap pile as River of Dreams. I still don’t understand being a “fan.” Cumon guys.