908. Billy Joel / An Innocent Man. 1983. 3.5/5

Billy Joel’s career had been on a steady rise throughout the 1970’s, bringing a string of hit albums and singles to match. His album prior to the release of this one, 1982’s “The Nylon Curtain”, featured songs of a more serious tone lyrically than he had written in recent times, focusing on the changing times that he was living in, and some of the more serious topics that surrounded him. When interviewed about the tone of that album, Joel had said that he wanted to speak about the fact that because of the political and economic changes it was unlikely that you would inherit the same life that your parents had.
The success of that album and of its slightly darker tones brought Joel to a different plane when it came to recording its follow up. He had divorced his first wife and had been in the process of literally dating super models, women such as Elle MacPherson and Christie Brinkley. In interviews about this album in later years, he confessed that this new stage of his life actually made him feels like a younger man, and he began to go back and remember the happy times of his youth, which then made him think about the music that he listened to in those days and how much enjoyment he had gotten from that. And so it was from this that he came to write and record an album that utilised that music from his youth, and compose an array of songs in the same style of those artists that he loved from his childhood.
This of course could have been seen to be a move that could have hurt his musically. As much as those of his generation were still reminiscing about the same style of music that Joel was contemplating on composing, 1983 was as far from that music-wise as it could have been. It was the age of new-wave, pop-rock, glam metal and hard rock, and in no way a world that appeared conducive to a bout of 50’s and 60’s revivalist do-wop, soul and rock and roll. But this is still the direction that Joel went in, and the end result may well have been as surprising to him as it was to music listeners everywhere.

Now that I am older, though not necessarily wiser, but certainly of different and more varied music tastes, the stark fallback in musical genre that this album is generated from is something that is more interesting to face than it was in those early teenage years. It's not that it wasn't obvious all those years ago that there was a certain vintage quality about the songs on this album, it’s just that because they were Billy Joel songs it didn’t seem to matter. The fact is that this is in places such a vast divergence from the sound of the albums that went before it that as a package it really has to be dissected with that in mind. This IS an album that could have come from the 1950's and 1960's, with Billy writing each song as a homage to a different band or genre to the music of his childhood.
In the album linear notes, Joel explains what period or band each song is written with in mind, each as a homage to that particular artist, and as a result written ‘in the sound of’ that particular artist. Not a copy, not a rip-off, but as a loving original creation to stand as a tribute to them and their music that had inspired him as a child.
Taking all of that into consideration, crafting the album in this way and having the songs run smoothly throughout without affecting the flow of the album then becomes a task in itself. And given those wide variety of style of songs I’m sure people have different reactions to this.
The change in tempo and mood doesn't always make the album cohesive either. "Easy Money" is upbeat and vibrant, sung and played with gusto, before moving straight into the slow moving and moody title track "An Innocent Man" which is a completely different style. Then to complete the triumvirate you have "The Longest Time" which removes most of the instruments and relies mainly on the voices of Billy and his do-wop back up singers. Albums don't have to follow the same course of music style to be accessible, but it helps if there is some sort of progression, and here it feels a bit congested. "This Night" then moves into the bright and breezy "Tell Her About It" which is still a mood lifter whenever it gets played.
"Uptown Girl" is the song that everyone of my generation still knows off by heart and can sing along to whenever it is played. No matter that it is one of a plethora of songs where future second wife Christie Brinkley is the subject matter, it is still one of those songs that brings up memories of that era. "Careless Talk" always reminds me of the kind of music my grandparents used to play whenever we were over at their house, while "Christie Lee" is a little self indulgent and very much in the style of the legends that he has attributed it to, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" and "Keeping the Faith" were both released as singles late in the piece, and again their style mixes in within what has come before them.
In later years, what this album has reminded me most of its one of those K-Tel compilation albums of the era, when the ads proliferation our TV screens of the 1980’s, with a variety of songs from bands of the late 50’s and early 60’s, where they styles change from rock n roll and do-wop to soul and r and b. It’s just that all of the songs here are composed and performed by Billy Joel, and combine to make a unique sounding album for the mid-1980's.

When this album was first released, I loved it. I loved almost all of the songs on it, and especially those that were released as singles. I enjoyed the fact that it was not the usual new wave pop music that was dominating the radio at the time. The change of pace, the fun side and the soft side, it was all terrific. And that is how I remembered it, up until about a decade ago, when I started to go back and listen to all of Billy Joel’s discography in order, and break them all down for reviews for my music album review blog at the time. And that process was eminently enjoyable, until I reached “An Innocent Man”. Why? Well, what seems to have changed for me from the time of this album's release in 1983 through to that point in time is that while I enjoyed and loved the renditions of the songs back when they were released, at a time when I was beginning to discover music in a larger way, and enjoying everything that Billy Joel was releasing, now I find them... less interesting, bordering on boring in some cases. I believe most of that was because I had always remembered in my head how much I enjoyed that album, and that once I listened to all of Billy’s other material all together, I found the weakness – the kryptonite – of this album. That it now sounded like an album of the 1950’s and 60’s, and not an album of the 1980’s.
It's fair to say that I have mixed emotions over this album now. I still recall the love I had for it back in the mid-1980's and trying to come to terms with that in comparison to some of the doubts I harbour for it now makes it a juggling act. There's no doubt that I don't feel as positive about songs such as "Easy Money" and "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" and even "An Innocent Man" and "The Longest Time" as I did thirty years ago. That doesn't deny the fact that despite its change in style from other albums of his, this was still a big part of my early teenage years. And it doesn’t mean I think this is an average album, it just means that my thoughts on it have changed with the onset of time, for many reasons.
I have had this going for three weeks now in preparation for this episode, and while it still has good moments, for me it has become a little dated. It may sound like I am putting the album down, but more importantly I just think I have grown away from the music as it is written.