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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Carried Along Indeed, February 18, 2003
This album is not perfect. It is especially not perfect when its individual parts are scrutinized. However, this may be a case where the whole of the album is greater than the sum of its parts. In many ways, the album is best understood as not having 10 tracks but rather two movements and each movemt has its own discrete meaning. Tracks 1-5 are in the first movement. Thus movement has Billy Joel tapping into matters such as: 1) Suburban bitterness in "No Man's Land," ("I see these children with their boredom and their vacant stares/ God help us all if we're to blame for their unanswered prayers) 2) His business manager's theft of Joel's money in "Great Wall of China," ("You take a piece of whatever you touch/Too many pieces mean you're touching too much.") 3) The distance and unattainability of his estranged "blond" wife, Christie Brinkley in "Blond Over Blue" ("But in the darkness, I see her light turned on.") 4) Billy Joel's own mental state in "A Minor Variation," ("Some days I have to give right into the blues...You think I'm crazy/It's such a sad composition/But can you blame me/For what's causing my bad disposition?) 5) His loss of faith at midlife in the world in "Shades of Grey" (These days it's harder to say I know what'I'm fighting for/My faith is falling away/I'm not that sure anymore") The songs in this "first movement" discuss and explore negative emotions and utilize dissonant sounds to protray a man who has become truly lost in the world. The "cause of his bad disposition" is fully explored here in the first movement and it threatens to consume him. Then the Second movement begins: 6) In "All About Soul," the listener is presented with something not previously heard on the record - the prominent use of Piano. During the songs of the "first movement" piano was used only once, in "Great Wall of China" but it was not a prominent part of the song here. If the "first movement" could be fairly categorized as the gathering storm, then "All About Soul" represents Billy Joel tying himself to the mast during the worst part of the storm. Though Joel is plagued by the "people who have lost every trace of/human kindness" and that "This life isn't fair" and that "getting tough is not enough," he does learn the answer to what plagues him, Soul. Now, "it's all about soul/It's all about faith and a deeper devotion." 7) "Lullabye" represents the calm after the storm. It represents Billy Joel taking inventory of what remains in his life that is good. And what he finds is his young daughter. And so, he sings her a song and in so doing, sings a song to himself. He answers himself in "No Man's Land" vowing not to be the blame for his own daughter's unanswered prayers, "I promised I would never leave you/ And you should Always Know/ Wherever you may go/No matter where you are/I will never be far away. 8) In learning that it was "All ABout Soul," the listener is then treated to some nice soul quennching gospel music. If in Lullabye we learned that one thing that remained in Joel's life that was good was his daughter, the other thing we learn is that the other thing that remains is his piano. "And I've been searching for something/Taken out of my soul/Something I would never lose/Something somebody stole." "River of Dreams" is a funky soul revival piano-laced fun time. It is the full-fledged return of the "Piano Man" and stands in sharp contrast to the songs in the first movement. 9) In "Two Thousand Years," Billy Joel has reached his new world. Now he must question the direction his life will take. "This is our moment/Here at the crossroads of time/We hope our children carry our dreams down the line/They are the vintage/What kind of life will they live?/Is this a curse or a blessing that we give?" 10) Though it may had been arguable then that Joel was correct in "A Minor Variation" in saying that he had "No way to win when you've already been forgotten," he does not sound bitter in "Famous Last Words" when he says that there's "Nothing left for a dreamer now, only one final serenade." The "second movement" features piano prominently on every song which stands in sharp contrast to the first movement. The hope of the second movement is juxtaposed by the despair of the first. Taken individually, there are some songs that are standouts and others that are not. Taken as a whole, all of the songs flow together into one larger song with one larger meaning. Taken together, all the pieces fit and it is this big piece that Billy Joel (who had aspirations to be a history teacher, among other things) puts forth as the lesson of the history of his life. He interprets his legacy. And, most importantly, Joel hopes that the listener has learned something in singing "Ain't that the story of my life." "Ain't" that indeed.
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by Billy Joel 
