Cheap Innocent Man (Music) (Billy Joel) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Innocent Man

My personal favorite!
I am a big Billy Joel fan, so keep that in mind as you read my reviews of his work. An Innocent Man is my personal favorite of all his albums. It harks back to some of the sounds of the 50's, but Joel is a far better musician and singer than many of the 50's artists. When he does doo-wop on The Longest Time, the harmonies are clean and crisp...unlike many 50's recordings which literally sounded like they were made in someone's garage in a single take (perhaps some were!).

I grew up in New York City (Brooklyn to be precise), and Keeping the Faith is a great great reminder of those days.

All in all this a very good concept album, with a sound harking back to the 50's and 60's. The only song that does not quite fit, I feel, is Easy Money. It's a good song, but does not integrate into the rest of the album. I feel it was included merely because it was a big hit, because of its use in the movie.

That is a minor quibble however...I strongly recommend the album!

---

Classic Billy Joel
Every song on this disc is a hit, and the track listing really speaks for itself. My favorite Billy Joel song period is the title track, "An Innocent Man", and I was fortunate enough to hear him sing it live in a concert of his I attended. (and for those that haven't seen him live... highly reccomended. The Piano Man puts on one helluva show) Other standout tracks are the acapella "The Longest Time", "Tell her about it", and the overplayed to annoyance but still very enjoyable "Uptown Girl". The album also closes well with the magnificent and reflective "Keeping the Faith". The entire album pays homage to Joel's own musical influences as a youth, the music of the 50's and 60's, but still sounds fresh even today, some 20 years after its original release. This is a must have CD, and vintage Billy Joel.

---

Flyweight pop - I always thought this was so light
Though a child of the 1980s, "An Innocent Man" always sounded to me like an album of no substance merely because it seemed to lack the power that I found back in the 1990s in almost all of Billy Joel's other works.

Nowadays, it is clear to me that a good deal of the apparent power in 1980s music is pure pomp. This, though, makes "An Innocent Man" look even more like an album made for the pre-rock masses still very much an important presence during the 1980s.

Indeed, it is fair to say that most of the songs on "An Innocent Man" do not have any redeeming qualities whatsoever. The title tune, which has at least some weight in it, sounded really slushy even at the time it was released because of the way in which Joel's voice was put so far up front - at least during the chorus.

The other hit single from this album are much, much worse.

"The Longest Time" was undoubtedly one of the worst moments in pop music history: a hit single so lightweight that it was and is incredibly plain that no melody existed in Joel's near-spoken voice: he never had any pretensions to be a poet, and no song could show this better. "Tell Her About It" and "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" were also flyweight in texture and had not a single memorable hook line or melody. Even the soulful "Tell Her About It" was redeemed only by its extreme catchiness, but catchiness is something to be expected from a singer who was the most popular musician in Australia for fifteen years. The song itself was lacking in emotion compared with Joel's other albums, and it has dated so much that it is seldom played even on classic hits radio.

If you don't want to stay in the 1980s, there is no need to buy this even if you like some other Billy Joel album.