IT'S BETTER THAN DRINKIN' ALONE: The Official ILM Track-by-Track BILLY JOEL Listening Thread

Green Day formed in 86 and had already released 2 albums by this time

I knew better than to have looked this up.

https://i.imgur.com/BcXZSFc.png

my god..........

no man's land - this is billy joel back in hardcore billy joel territory and i unequivocally love this. it rocks, it's catchy, and he's speaking to his core constituency the same way ray davies was speaking to his core constituency with "come dancing," which is the first song that this brought to mind this morning even though they're very different songs. the daily discount outlet merchandise. the multiplex. the miles and miles of parking space. the condo kings. these are the thing that billy has been warning us (and himself) about since roundabout streetlife serenade, and now these are the things the poor captain of the downeaster alexa is fated to see every time he comes back ashore. i could hardly blame him if all he wants to do is reminisce about the place that's no longer there where his sister used to go dancing, or gripe about amy fischer and cocaine.

his best side one track one since "allentown." which was also about how everything's turned to shit around here. that time with unemployment lines. this time with volvos and valentines.

"god help us all if we're to blame for their unanswered prayers" is a good line.

The intro is "Life During Wartime" and the chorus is "In God's Country."

i'm still trying to figure out what the pre-chorus ("now we're gonna get the big business...") reminds me of.

I thought that was the "Life During Wartime" bit (though admittedly, its vague).

also,

the daily discount outlet merchandise. the multiplex. the miles and miles of parking space. the condo kings. these are the thing that billy has been warning us (and himself) about since roundabout streetlife serenade, and now these are the things the poor captain of the downeaster alexa is fated to see every time he comes back ashore. i could hardly blame him if all he wants to do is reminisce about the place that's no longer there where his sister used to go dancing, or gripe about amy fischer and cocaine.

yes! This is exactly what makes this a more sincere and justified take that most songs of this stripe. I buy it.

I thought that was the "Life During Wartime" bit (though admittedly, its vague).

i can sort of see that but i'm hearing something specific in the back of my head that i just can't place. this is going to bother me.

as far as songs decrying american suburbia go, i do agree that coming from billy is feels more authentic and hits harder, since he's such a suburban artist at heart and was invested in strong island suburbs the same way bruce was in his mythical jersey shore

or in general most suburban rants are coming from a place of contempt not mourning

hahaha I am kind of famous for having inexplicable huge gaps in my listening

i have personally fact checked this. it's true!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HP_uDksJu0

The Great Wall of China is Billy's kiss-off to Frank Weber, with regard to the aforementioned financial and legal kerfluffle. I hear a few shades of the Beatles, via the Nylon Curtain approach to them anyway.

I like the chorus and arrangement on this quite a bit and lyrically again he seems to be on his game...off to a good start on this album

yeah i like this song too!

def feel the nylon curtain vibe
these first 2 songs kinda feel less of that bad late 80s place that i cannot stand (ie most of stormfront outside of the killer songs)

I feel like in general early 90s records sound better than late 80s ones? Like common sense had regained a foothold after a period of gonzo use of the digital kitchen sink? But I'm not really an expert here and the difference could just be punting Jones for Kootch.

this one gives me all sorts of michael penn power-pop vibes. super earwormy.

the lyrics are a little (or a lot) on-the-nose and lead to some weird, un-billy phrasing, in both the way he packs a few extra syllables into the choruses and the quirky way he's breaking up his phrases in the verses ("somewordsare / notheardtill" "yourrolewas / protective"), like this is a lyric he really really needs to get off his chest, no matter what it's gonna take to do so. take that, mr. ex-manager. AHH-AHH-AAAAH-AH!

see also this thread, especially nabisco's posts: Is there a name for that genre of turn-of-the-90s pop-rock with the positive vibes, huge guitar leads, and gated drums?

feel like this album is on the mid-90s side of the glossy production ravine. it's not quite the unplugged or unplugged-inspired sound of later back-to-basics efforts like Bringing Down The Horse, but it's a lot warmer and a lot more band-like than Storm Front. see also Off The Ground versus Flowers in the Dirt, etc.

From the POV of someone who enjoys his music, I sure am glad he got all pissed and jaded again.

The Michael Penn comparison is interesting. I can definitely hear it in the chorus, which sounds like at least two of the songs on his album Resigned that I can recall offhand. Penn would never have been this snotty or aggressive in his verses, though. You can associate a lot of things with Billy, but I'm not sure "positive vibes" is one of them.

I know its early in the proceedings here, but I am relieved at how good this album is still sounding to me, so far. Not having played it in years, I was expecting to smile at the title track and be bored by the rest of it, but I actually quite like the two big rock numbers that open up the record ("big rock numbers" being the turn that Billy took on The Bridge and Storm Front that damed those albums for me--well, that and shit production and songwriting). I know, from glancing at the track listing, that there are two songs on this album that make me cringe, but both of those songs already sounded bad to me in '93, and I (otherwise) loved the album back then, so we'll see.

I'm not loving this song tbh - six minutes is REALLY pushing it even though the bones are there. But I really like the vocal on it - not hearing either the strain or the head cold that's cropped up elsewhere. This could have been recorded in the session right after "Captain Jack."

Michael Penn could be snotty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9F0Qg3k4SQ

Good call on "Seen the Doctor." I stand corrected!

This verse, in particular, is like early Costello temporarily losing his composure and just are associating hilarious rhymes:

I'm breathing
But it's become a chore
Now that I've seen the doctor
You're just a fucking bore
Like Dorothy Lamour
Dolled up in Singapore
To meet the Commodores
Don't call me anymore

*FREE associating

that's a good album – totally forgotten

as soon as I saw the title, the chorus of this song came back to me even though I last heard it twenty years ago - Billy can write an indelible chorus. Reminded me of ELO even more than the Beatles, though the way the verse suddenly kicks into the bright major key chorus immediately brought to mind "Sowing the Seeds of Love". So far, he sounds very energized on this album, and for once, the singles aren't frontloading the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75TlfVROTIg

Blonde Over Blue is a muse-that-makes-everything-all-right song. "I wanted to write something that Roy Orbison would sing." This making-of video, though not following the creation of the song in a linear way, reveals a lot about the process at this point, and the Joel-Kootch relationship.

Someone mention Bryan Ferry?

hi!

The opening synth in "Blonde Over Blue" reminds me of The Cars' "Touch and GO."

I love the tension-and-release of the jerky new wave of the verses--the first time he's gone there since jerky new wave was fashionable--and the florid chorus. The verses remind me, oddly, as much of They Might Be Giants' "She's an Angel" as they do, say, Elvis Costello, and I really never thought I'd be invoking TMBG here.

the "psycho" verse synth reminds me of "you got lucky." i wish it were more synthy and less "synth strings." i wish - and i'm really turning into a broken record - that it weren't five minutes long.

i also miss liberty on drums and am glad he'll be back for the next song... this is tasteful enough work from zack alford, and maybe a good fit for a "maturing" billy but maybe it would be good to have more forceful presences pushing against the song and taking it places. or maybe i've just been prejudiced by that making-of video, which suggests nobody was sure about the rhythm going into the chorus, but that all sensed that something was keeping it from taking flight. i wonder if one of billy's old, more melodic piano lines might have helped there, if he could have loosened what i assume is the arena-driven pressure to always know exactly where the beat is.

I'm liking this album so far!

guitars in the chorus are lovely. damn billy, really bringing it for your last pop album

i agree with doc that this goes on somewhat too long though

I hate the drum sound too (not the drumming, though).

Between the new wave verses, the breezy chorus, the jazzy Steely Dan changes in the bridge, and the Orbison voice, this is an interesting tune! surprising how well it works

the "psycho" verse synth reminds me of "you got lucky."

i'm hearing "spirits in the material world"

yeah, totally!

I like my "Touch and Go" analogy best, sorry

i'm here for the "touch and go" analogy too!

I did almost write "Spirits" though.

Let's just say that this is a more assured New Wave, uh, homage than what he put out in 1983.

the jazzy Steely Dan changes in the bridge

yeah that instrumental break is very aja.

damn billy, really bringing it for your last pop album

i'm starting to get angry at billy for up and quitting after this album. but at the same time starting to admire him that much more for quitting while he was near the top of his game.

as much as i like them more than most ppl itt, the kinda audible exhaustion of the last two records isn't here so far at all

and even though i dread getting it stuck in my head when we finally arrive at it, there's so much animation to the big hit on this record that it makes "fire" and "extremes" seem considerably more labored in comparison

I like The Big Hit more than "Fire" and "Extremes" by like a factor of 10.

i still have a lot of affection for the wordless "lion sleeps tonight"-esque bit he includes in the hook, but we'll get to that when we get there

i like how confident he sounds on this album. this is his swagger album. he's spent so much of his career seemingly trying to prove something. here he's like i know shit sucks in the world but shit's pretty good at home and i can craft a pretty fine tune any time i want and bitch i'm billy joel. i like the pliability of his voice in "blonde and blue," and i like the pliability of the rhythm, too. not the most obvious billy joel song but he just kind of wills it into being, because he can. please don't let me down, rest of river of dreams.

Another comparison to the chorus here is Genesis's "That's All" - "truth is I loved you / more than I wanted to."