Billy Joel: A Matter Of Trust: The Bridge To Russia

A-Matter-Of-Trust-front-cover
Billy Joel
A Matter Of Trust: The Bridge To Russia
(Columbia/Legacy)
4 out of 5 stars

Videos by American Songwriter

It’s a bull market these days for stock in Billy Joel’s cultural relevance and critical standing. This current roll started with a standout performance at the 12-12-12 concert to benefit Hurricane Sandy. His residency at Madison Square Garden has been nothing short of triumphant, and a limited-run channel running on satellite radio the past few months devoted to his music has proven just how deep his catalog runs. Heck, it’s even admirable how he stands as one of the few rock stars to hold to his retirement from recording new stuff; it’s been over 20 years now since his last studio album of rock-based material.

On top of all that comes A Matter Of Trust: The Bridge To Russia, a sprawling 2-CD/Blu-Ray retrospective of a time when Joel was still a pop titan. In 1987, in the midst of Cold War tensions, he did a brief tour of the Soviet Union. A new documentary included here goes into detail about the cultural differences that the power of the music and Joel’s relentless energy eventually overcame. Plus, there’s great footage of Joel going ballistic and tipping over a piano. (A video of one of the live shows is also included in the deluxe package.)

Cover Story: Billy Joel Restarts The Fire

As for the music, the new edition includes 11 songs that were omitted from the original release. While some might hope that this would allow for more deep cuts, these extra tracks actually skew more to evergreens like “New York State Of Mind,” “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” and “Piano Man.” Thus this collection makes for a pretty thorough greatest hits package recorded at a time when Joel sounded fantastic and enjoyed the company of a crack live band.

Diehards can’t be blamed for wishing for a few more off-the-beaten-path selections like “Stiletto,” a track from 1978’s 52nd Street that manages to be both effortlessly funky and thunderously rocking in this live rendition. The momentum bogs down a bit at the end of the first disc with some slower material, only to rev back up when a terrifically edgy “Pressure” starts Disc 2. From there, Joel peppers the audience with a barrage of consistently catchy up-tempo tracks from the late 70’s and early 80’s, until the language barrier has been completely obliterated by the sheer momentum of it all.

Elsewhere, he gives a suitably somber reading of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” on a Russian TV show and makes a case for his casting in a revival of Beatlemania with smoking renditions of “Back In The U.S.S.R.” and “She Loves You.” The bottom line is that the Billy Joel revival keeps on full-speed ahead with A Matter Of Trust: The Bridge To Russia. It sort of makes you wish he’d act like so many of his contemporaries, renege on that self-imposed retirement from the pop/rock rat race, and give us some new music.

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