The Stranger

I have a very big attachment to the opener of this album. I discovered it back in 2018, and it honestly just changed my life. It's one of those songs that just, got stuck in my head and that to some extent it marked me and my taste in music. Very rarely do I listen to music from the 70s or 80s because I rarely like them, not to say they're bad, they just, feel dated, but "Movin' Out" has a flair of nostalgia and happiness that I think would simply work no matter what time it would've come out.

It's probably one of my favorite songs of all time. I have so much love and appreciation for the song as a whole, and that love got revitalized recently, with this track being the only one I've been hearing on repeat since yesterday. I like looking at it as "one of those songs". Those songs leave an impression and mark on me and that seriously feels like one of those important landmarks in my life, just like "Disorder" or "1979".

And then, there's the rest of the album.

Surprisingly I didn't dislike it. As I mentioned earlier in my review, it's very rare that I actually like music from before the 90s, simply because I find it to be extremely dated. This album does feel dated, but, it has a certain charm that ends up distracting you from this. Billy Joel's charisma makes the album a lot more entertaining too, and the lyricism is also pretty great on most songs, they all feel beautiful in their own way, and I personally love that.

The issue is... nothing else is like "Movin' Out". I know, an album can't be the same song over and over, but, I personally would've loved seeing a little more energy and upbeat instrumentals on the album, the way they are on the opener because then, the album would've been a lot greater and more replayable than it ends up being, at least for me. There's simply no reason why I should come back to this album aside from the opener, I know, it leaves the bar extremely high and it resinates mostly on emotional value, and songs that I'm only hearing for the first or second time won't come close to it, but I mean, none of them have the look of the kind of track that would do that with me, to begin with.

It's a good album, and I think if you like piano-driven music with nice lyricism, then, this album may be for you, but for me, there's just one song inside this project.