Published on Jun 11, 1997
Sometimes an artist’s most mature work is the one which doesn’t
get the most attention.
Billy Joel was faced with a tough decision – after the success
of his album
An Innocent Man and the commercial failure of
The Bridge, he needed to re-think his musical direction. His
answer:
Storm Front, which has only gotten better since it was
released in 1989.
The only damning moment on the album is the first single, “We
Didn’t Start The Fire,” where it sounds like Joel memorized the
entire
New York Times story morgue in an attempt to write a hit
song. It was seen at the time as pompous; now it’s only damned
annoying. Not a good start to breaking out of a slump.
Fortunately, Joel makes very few of these mistakes. “That’s Not
Her Style” is a great slab of power-pop which has Joel and his band
moving a little closer to the rock vein, a move which works.
Further evidence of this success is heard in “I Go To Extremes,”
one of the best songs Joel has ever recorded. The drums and piano
are almost perfectly thrown into the mix, and results in a
radio-friendly song.
Other songs are surprise successes. One would think a song named
after your child would be overbearing. However, “The Downeaster
Alexa” has little to do with the product of his marriage with
supermodel Christie Brinkley, and more with why Joel was considered
one of the best storytellers in music at the start of his career.
This is a poignant picture of a fisherman who has given up
everything in order to try to earn a living for his family.
“Leningrad” is a stinging attack against the images each side on
the Cold War painted of each other – in the haste to make each side
the enemy, we forgot they were human.
Even the title track, often a weak link on an album, is a decent
track – Joel’s voice is in rare form. The album’s closer, “And So
It Goes,” strips it down to just Joel and his piano, and the
silence of these two voices speaks volumes.
In face,
Storm Front only has two weak tracks. Besides “We Didn’t
Start The Fire,” the only throwaway track is “When In Rome” – all
in all, par for the course.
Storm Front only topped the charts for one week, his third
number one album of his career. This is definitely an album that is
worth picking up – it’s easily Joel’s best work ever.