The music and instrumentation in Billy's music is always fantastic, but his lyrical work and storytelling is a huge showstopper for me. "A bottle of red, a bottle of white/It all depends upon your appetite/I'll meet you any time you want/In our Italian Restaurant"? Come on, the only thing cheesier than that would be... Velveeta fondue. Things took a turn for the unsettling when I got around to actually listening to the lyrics of "Only The Good Die Young", and I honestly gave up on the album after that. Billy Joel is the straighter, less interesting, slightly creepy Elton John, and I'd honestly be perfectly fine never hearing a song of his agian.

The music and instrumentation in Billy's music is always fantastic, but his lyrical work and storytelling is a huge showstopper for me. "A bottle of red, a bottle of white/It all depends upon your appetite/I'll meet you any time you want/In our Italian Restaurant"? Come on, the only thing cheesier than that would be... Velveeta fondue. Things took a turn for the unsettling when I got around to actually listening to the lyrics of "Only The Good Die Young", and I honestly gave up on the album after that. Billy Joel is the straighter, less interesting, slightly creepy Elton John, and I'd honestly be perfectly fine never hearing a song of his agian.

I've listened to this many times, great album!

Very much a product of its time. Some tracks, like Chain of Fools, Natural Woman, and Good to Me... break away from it and are standouts, but overall it's a very good representation of it's era. Glad I listened, but not sure I'll return to it in the future.

Excellent release that has been the reference point for several acts to come afterwards, such as Vampire Weekend. As we've moved further from the original release, some more unsavory aspects of the album have come to light, but overall has a very important place in widening the general populaces musical knowledge. Plus, You Can Call Me Al is a bop.