Billy Joel - River of Dreams
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CD Details
Artist: Billy JoelEdition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1998-10-20
Music Label: Columbia/ Sony
Soundtracks:
- No Man's Land
- The Great Wall Of China
- Blonde Over Blue
- A Minor Variation
- Shades Of Grey
- All About Soul
- Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
- The River Of Dreams
- Two Thousand Years
- Famous Last Words
Music reviews of River of Dreams
Music Review: This Album is Special!
Rating: 5 Stars
It's been nearly 12 years since I first listened to "River Of Dreams" and it is still part of my regular listening rotation.
It never gets old! But I think it is also one of the most importaint albums I have ever heard.
It is not only my favorite album of the 90's but in my top five of all time. I can understand that not everyone, perhaps not even every Billy Joel fan, would agree with me, and some people may not even like the album, after all we all have albums that are special to us for reasons others just don't get, but I happen to think this is the apex of Billy's writting tallents. or any rock artist for that matter.
With the exception of the title track and "All About Soul," there aren't a lot of huge hits here, but that has more to do with radio at the time and Billy Joel being "out of his classic period" (as I have heard his later albums refered to) than anything else. The fact is that every song is expertly aranged and would make a fine radio single, but radio began moving in a different direction then (yet, he still managed 3 singles from this album) And consider this, this (to date) being his last album, Billy Joel never had an album that was not a smash and yielded one or more hit singles, this one included (about 4 million copies sold here in the states alone). That is huge! And it is often overlooked when speaking about Billy Joel's career. He is one of only a handfull of artists to span 3 decades in rock music AND somehow hit EVERY SINGLE TIME. Not one album after he became a superstar flopped. Amazing!
Yes, in the late 70s and early 80s he was turning out hits back to back every year, so much so that about 10 years into his career he had a double album greatest hits collection (I wonder if that isn't some kind of record - that is something I would think only the Beatles and Stones have pulled off). His later career hits coming less frequently, is not due to the fact he began doing lesser work, it's because he stopped pumping out an album every year as he did for the 10 years prior. He began delivering new music every three or four years and every album had just as many hits as his heyday records, but they were now spread out over the years. The hits he did give us were just as good (some better than) as his classics and the albums as a whole were better: tougher, stronger, more grown up, and containing songs with lyrics that, on paper and removed from the music, were pure poetry.
This was where I went from being a fan of Billy Joel's music to being a fan of Billy Joel. Essentialy, I mean, I gained respect for him as a lyricist, a performer and he became an artist who touched me, I could relate to, and I found great advice and wisdom in his words, as opposed to just loving great hits like "Only the Good Die Young" and "Movin' Out." You can find hints of the deeper Billy Joel throughout his career ("The Stranger," and "Nylon Curtain," certainly had more beneath the surface), but it was with "River Of Dreams," and the almost-as-good "Storm Front" where Billy began building whole albums of emotion, subtext and context that were still rockers and maintained the integrity of the sound his fans love.
In "growing," many artists feel they need to go off in some completely different direction and end up alienating those who have been listening forever. Die Hard fans will follow, but many not for long because all of a sudden this is not the person that once moved and inspired you - and radio surely won't embrace a new sound, great an album as the artist may have (look at R.E.M.). Billy Joel though, "grew" almost undercover. The songs still sounded like Billy Joel and he fooled radio with catchy hits like "We didn't Start the Fire," and "The River Of Dreams," but the lyrics and albums as a whole were the works of new artist. Thank God he could still play and sing like Billy Joel.
"River Of Dreams," blew me away. Maybe it was whatever was going on in my life at the time (I was only newly in high school - Nirvana should have been speaking to me at the time as they did most everyone else), maybe I just never was able to see myself in someone's songs before and relate to their pain, joy, doubts and indiference. Everyone has that album in their life and "River Of Dreams" is mine. On this record, Billy Joel says in a 3 minute song things I have always felt, but had no idea how to say. Like a book, the album is a complete work - a begining, a middle and an end. The first 5 songs focus on anger, doubt, betrayl. Then comes the questions and possible solutions (if any) and finally a realization of what matters and a way of finding peace. Every song is awash in imagery (from the "big machines" and multiplexes of "No Man's Land" to the rivers and deserts of the title track to the "apples in the early morn" and chairs being stacked and lights being covered for the end of the season in "Famous Last Words," perhaps the most helpless lyics ever set to a peppy beat, but that has always been Joel's forte`, witness songs like "Movin' Out," "Scenes From An Italian...," and "Allentown" just to name a few)and some of them require only a listen to make you feel better about your own problems (such as the albums biggest standout among many - the angry/blusey "A Minor Variation," one of Joe's best-ever vocal performances).
The casual Billy Joel fan will no doubt disagree with much of this, and I could be over selling it a bit. But I didn't pick the album up and say this is going to be my favorite Billy Joel album and my favorite album of the decade; something about it must be special; as corny as it sounds,the album picked me. Most won't love it on this same level that I do, and I can understand that; but I can't understand how anyone can think the music and lyrics are anything less than outstanding.
If "River Of Dreams" is indeed Billy Joel's last album of new material, it will stand as his finest.
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