Artist: Billy Joel Album: The Stranger Released: 1977 Source: CBS Records Genre: soft.rock Format: eac/ape.208mb
Review:
Quote
Billy
Joel teamed with Phil Ramone, a famed engineer who had just scored his
first producing hits with Art Garfunkel's Breakaway and Paul Simon's
Still Crazy After All These Years for The Stranger, his follow-up to
Turnstiles. Joel still favored big, sweeping melodies, but Ramone
convinced him to streamline his arrangements and clean up the
production. The results aren't necessarily revelatory, since he covered
so much ground on Turnstiles, but the commercialism of The Stranger is
a bit of a surprise. None of his ballads have been as sweet or slick as
"Just the Way You Are"; he never had created a rocker as bouncy or
infectious as "Only the Good Die Young"; and the glossy production of
"She's Always a Woman" disguises its latent misogynist streak. Joel
balanced such radio-ready material with a series of New York vignettes,
seemingly inspired by Springsteen's working-class fables and clearly
intended to be the artistic centerpieces of the album. They do provide
The Stranger with the feel of a concept album, yet there is no true
thematic connection between the pieces, and his lyrics are often vague
or mean-spirited. His lyrical shortcomings are overshadowed by his
musical strengths. Even if his melodies sound more Broadway than
Beatles — the epic suite "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" feels like
a show-stopping closer — there's no denying that the melodies of each
song on The Stranger are memorable, so much so that they strengthen the
weaker portions of the album. Joel rarely wrote a set of songs better
than those on The Stranger, nor did he often deliver an album as
consistently listenable.
Track List: 1 Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) Joel 3:30 2 The Stranger Joel 5:10 3 Just the Way You Are Joel 4:50 4 Scenes from an Italian Restaurant Joel 7:37 5 Vienna Joel 3:34 6 Only the Good Die Young Joel 3:55 7 She's Always a Woman Joel 3:21 8 Get It Right the First Time Joel 3:57 9 Everybody Has a Dream Joel 9:08
Code
Code: EAC extraction logfile from 27. May 2006, 10:05 for CD Billy Joel / The Stranger
Used drive : SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-248F Adapter: 0 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache Read offset correction : 97 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
Other options : Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Installed external ASPI interface
Range status and errors Selected range Filename
E:\Documents and Settings\rat.TR-G50KCK082Q78\My Documents\Billy Joel -
The Stranger.by.rat(emultrix.com)eac-ape\Billy Joel - The Stranger.wav
Peak level 89.6 % Range quality 100.0 % CRC 48A7F0FB Copy OK
