Glass Houses

Billy Joel - "Glass Houses" (1980) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We are left mostly unimpressed by the work of Billy Joel and 1980's Glass Houses is no exception.

To us it all sounds so vanilla, so derivative and so goddamned average.

There's hardly anything on this Grammy Award-winning LP that really gets us going.  In fact, to us, it sounds too much like an artist trying desperately to be *hip* and attempting to insert themselves into the fray of early 1980's New Wave artists.

For case in point, look no further than the (ahem) "punkish" album opener "You May Be Right" or the sneering "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" where Joel tries to be "hip" by denying how "hip" he's trying to be!

Oh and friends, do you want to hear something creepy?

Listen to Side One, track 2, "Sometimes A Fantasy" where good ol' B.J. drunk dials some girl and grovels for phone sex.  YECH!!

I didn't want to do it but I got too lonely
I had to call you up in the middle of the night
I know it's awful hard to try to make love long distance
But I really needed stimulation
Though it was only my imagination

It's just a fantasyIt's not the real thing  

Disgusting!

Actually, here's a YouTube clip of our favorite version of this song.  Enjoy!

RATING: 2 Lunatics You're Looking For out of 5