Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain

Billy Joel The Nylon Curtain on numbered limited edition Hybrid SACD

Singer-songwriter channels John Lennon on musically ambitious and socially poignant set

This product is a Hybrid SACD designed to play in both CD and SACD players, as well as all SACD-compatible DVD players. Having triumphantly asserted himself as a take-no-mess singer-songwriter on 1980's hard-rocking Glass Houses, Billy Joel continues to push his creative impulses on The Nylon Curtain, a fascinating song cycle that pays tribute to John Lennon and stands as the most ambitious project of his career. Enriched by sweeping orchestral arrangements and socially conscious lyrics, the 1982 set addresses unemployment, war, and realities of the Reagan era with exacting precision. Insightful and clever, the album's Baby Boomer-themed narratives continue to resonate.

The Nylon Curtain is mastered from the original master tapes and made available on fully transparent Hybrid SACD. The myriad nuances amidst Phil Ramone's crisp production assume greater tonality, texture, and detail. What was a very good-sounding album is now an audiophile-caliber favorite, with transparency, clarity, and microdynamics enhancing the poignant connection between Joel's expressiveness and the listener's emotions. The Nylon Curtain is now an even more personal experience, a brilliant distillation of sadness, loss, hope, and anger.

Harnessing concerns, obsessions, reflections, and feelings that consumed a majority of the Baby Boomer generation near the beginning of the Reagan Era, Joel delves into job loss ("Allentown"), wartime fallout ("Goodbye Saigon"), and, of course, romantic longing ("She's Right on Time"). Rather than take a long-view perspective, Joel gets up and close to the issues, infusing the fare with a mix of sadness, frustration, cautious optimism, and moodiness that he wears on his sleeve. Joel's melodies, too, ricochet with unmistakably personal sentiment, as he constructs arrangements in tribute to Lennon, whose ghost arises on pieces like "Scandinavian Skies" and "Laura."

 

1. Allentown

2. Laura

3. Pressure

4. Goodnight Saigon

5. She’s Right On Time

6. A Room Of Our Own

7. Surprises

8. Scandinavian Skies

9. Where’s The Orchestra?

Customer Reviews (5.00 Stars) 1 person(s) rated this product.

Yeah, get this. posted on 01/24/2013 5 Stars Reviewer: brian I really enjoyed this title a lot. I have only the original vinyl to compare it to. But this version is certainly crankable. The "choo" in Allentown and the "drums" in Goodnight Saigon turn your living room into a recording studio. To use the old cliche, you feel like the album is being played live in your living room.

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