Billy Joel - 52nd Street
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CD Details
Artist: Billy JoelBrand: Sony
Edition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1998-10-20
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Big Shot
- Honesty
- My Life
- Zanzibar
- Stiletto
- Rosalinda's Eyes
- Half a Mile Away
- Until the Night
- 52nd Street
Music reviews of 52nd Street
Music Review: One Of The Billy Albums I Love
Rating: 5 Stars
Can't say that I love every one of Billy Joel's albums mainly because I've never heard them all. This is something that I remember,along with Heatwave's Central Heating that I remember listening to a lot as a child on 8-track at our summer camp. Hearing it now for the first time as an adult I am amazed how much my opinion of it has broadened and increased,not that I had a bad one in the first place. That comes from again having only heard a few of his albums and knowing him otherwise from his hits. During the late 70's the world of pop music was changing. Jazz and R&B were ascendant and,for those who were not interested in making disco or heartland rock style records those styles and the pop/rock of the day were beginning to bleed together and it turned out to be a wonderful combination. You could see that quality in records that explored that hybrid from Steely Dan's Aja,Gino Vannelli's Brother to Brother and The Doobie Brothers' Livin' on the Fault Line. This album is part of that same flow and,lucky for Billy Joel his sometimes over-reaching musical ambitions and edgy New York attitude really worked to great affect here. Even though the content of The Stranger was uniformily consistant it did have something of the feeling of a hit parade. At the same time the jazzy funk elements that permeate this album were creeping in even there and opened the door. Even the two big singles here "Big Shot" and "My Life" both have strong pop-jazz flavors in the production. "Zanzibar",featuring a jazz rhythm section in the arrangment featuring a solo by Freddie Hubbard allows Billy to stretch this musical concept out as far as he can take it with one of the best chorded hooks of his catalog next to perhaps "Movin' Out". On "Stiletto" and "Rosalinda's Eyes" the fusion flavor take presidents as the theme of girl watching comes up in various turns,twice. "Half A Mile Away" and "Until The Night" are the more pop/rocky of the tunes presented here but pop/rock with a very strong street funk flavor and also extend on the hopefully obvious Elton John influence in Billy's style. The album is rounded out by the swinging title tune and "Honesty",another of Billy's great ballads he seemed to do so well. Considering that jazz and funk on pop/rock albums can easily end up being gimmicky seeming genre exercises the fact that Billy chose to integrate those musical elements into his own sound is a sign that his often overbearing ambition,which often led to much criticism against his music,could take him to really good places.
Description of 52nd Street
Following up his 1977 breakthrough smash The Stranger was no easy task for Billy Joel; 52nd Street shows he wasn't quite up to the challenge, though it sold similarly well and kept the momentum for his fast- track career until the more impressive Glass Houses appeared in 1980. 52nd Street isn't without its moments: "My Life" remains one of Joel's most memorable hit singles, "Half a Mile Away" is a wonderful slice of infectiously upbeat pop, and "Rosalinda's Eyes" sways to an alluringly airy Latin feel. But macho poseur numbers such as "Big Shot" and "Stiletto" are embarrassingly overwrought, while the arty "Zanzibar" ultimately comes across more as pretentious than adventurous. The closing title track fails to convince anyone Joel is a cool blues hound. --Peter BlackstockAlbum-Oriented Rock (AOR) CDs
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