Joel's Often Overlooked Masterpiece

Advantages: Great Album That Shows Off Some Of His Best Lyrics And Songs
Disadvantages: Perhaps Too Short, But Really Not Much of A Complaint

...Turnstiles is Joel's fourth studio effort and finds him at his peak in terms of song writing, just before the release of his landmark The Stranger. But as with most of his work, this is not the same in terms of feel as his next album, with Joel taking more of a hands-on approach for this album, choosing his own instrumentalists and producing it himself, thus giving him freedom in the studio for his own vision. After life in LA, Joel was becoming restless with the music scene, as seen in some of the songs on the album, notably Say Goodbye to Hollywood, and he decided to up sticks to New York. He originally recorded this with some of Elton John's entourage, but was dissatisfied with the results and thus came to the decision that this was an album best done by himself. The song writing itself feels a bit more expansive than some of his...

Robin_Hod12 09.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Turnstiles - Billy Joel

Timeless Album by Billy Joel

Advantages: Great songs
Disadvantages: None

...Last night I was cleaning my CD rack and I tried to rearrange my CD's. I noticed this 52nd Street album of Billy Joel. I realized that I haven't played it for such a long time. As this album is one of my favorites, I played it and I was again mesmerized by most of the songs. Tracks Listing 1. Big Shot 4:05 2. Honesty 3:53 3. My Life 4:44 4. Zanzibar 5:10 5. Stiletto 4;44 6. Rosalinda's Eyes 4:40 7. Half A Mile 4:09 8. Until The Night 6:36 9. 52nd Street 2:26 About Each Track Big Shot Because you had to be a big shot, didn't you? You had to open up your mouth You had to be a big shot, didn't you? This track has a Billy Joel trademark with overpowering exhibition of guitars. I always love it when he sings the line 'big shot' with great enthusiasm. This song never bores me. Billy sings this song with full energy...

browndoll 03.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of 52nd Street [ECD] [Remastered] - Billy Joel

Lost Histories by Joel Levy

Advantages: Few and far between
Disadvantages: Buyer beware!

...When I ordered this book I thought: "Great! This is really going to be fun! A book called 'Lost Histories'! The full title intrigued me even more. 'Exploring the World's Most Famous Mysteries'. Sadly, this book by Joel Levy (published by Vision Paperbacks at £10.99) really did disappoint me. The book is divided into five blocks. Not actually chapters, but rather blocks. These are: Lost Places, Lost Artefacts Lost Treasure, Lost People and lost Wrecks. This is where the book starts to fall down. Each story is divided up into sections with irritating horizontal black lines. The problem is that Levy and his designers use the same horizontal black lines to divide each individual story, so there is room for confusion. It is easy -and very irritating- to find that you had accidentally strayed into an entirely different story...

Martinscholes 17.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of Lost Histories - Joel Levy

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

Innocent Joel

Advantages: A classic
Disadvantages: a few slightly weaker tracks

...In my opinion this is Billy Joel's best album. 'An Innocent Man' is Billy Joel's tribute to a genre of music that he constantly speaks of with affection; the doo-wop and soul music of his youth in New York City. It has a big 50's feel to it with fresh sounds. The album starts off with 'Easy Money', a nice rock track which was also the title song to the 1983 movie starring Rodney Dangerfield. 'An Innocent Man' and 'The Longest Time' are 'old skool' R&B. 'This Night' is a ballad that is beautifully constructed. 'Tell Her About It' and 'Uptown Girl' were both hits that are played at clubs throughout the land and are great party tracks. 'Careless Talk' is funky and upbeat. "Christie Lee" is a piano/saxophone/drums combo which has great lyrics but is still possibly the weakest track on the album. 'Leave a Tender...

nigelpm 24.06.2001 · Read review
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Review of Innocent Man, An [Remastered] - Billy Joel

Robbo 2000: "It's cool to like Billy Joel"

Advantages: Very good songs
Disadvantages: Not as strangely attractive as Supernanny

...If you read the music press these days, you would be forgiven for believing that tofu-eating popsters Coldplay invented the piano. They did not: the piano has been around since olden times, and was actually invented by Jesus, probably. Or someone called John Piano. But I digress - the piano was a common tool of the trade for many of the wealth of singer-songwriters who cropped up in the seventies, of which Billy Joel was one. Famous mainly for 1983's wedding disco favourite Uptown Girl, Billy finds himself in the unfortunate position of being thought a bit crap by a good many people. But those people are just silly, and I'm going to tell you why. A BIT ABOUT BILLY The son of classically trained musicians, Billy had piano lessons forced upon him from the age of 4. He may not have liked this at the time, but when he grew up to be...

robbo2000 12.03.2006 · Read review
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Review of Stranger, The [ECD] [Remastered] - Billy Joel

A Coen Brothers classic

Advantages: Story and actors
Disadvantages: none

...The Coen Brothers have made many excellent films over the years and their 1996 film, Fargo is definitely one of those films. Fargo is set in Fargo, North Dakota and is about a car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (William H Macy), with severe financial problems, who arranges for two men to kidnap his wife for $80,000 and force his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell) to pay a $1 million ransom. Jerry plans to use the remaining money to pay his debts. However the kidnapping does not go to plan as the two men, Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and his partner Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), end up committing an unplanned murder. The local police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), who is heavily pregnant, investigates the murders as she discovers the bigger scheme. This is a wonderful film from Joel and Ethan Coen, who have...

mozzie76 07.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Fargo (DVD)

Another Coen Caper

Advantages: Fun moments and some good performances
Disadvantages: Too convoluted and Clooney irritates

...This is a complex Coen Brothers caper. John Malkovich stars as a recently made redundant CIA agent Osborne Cox. Tired of their loveless marriage and in the midst of an affair with another man, and now without an income, his wife (played by Tilda Swinton) decides to divorce him. Destitute and depressed, Cox decides he'll write a book about his CIA exploits but loses a draft of the book at the gym. Gym employees Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDomand) find the papers and see it as a blackmail opportunity to pay for the plastic surgery procedures Linda wants. To complicate things, Linda starts an affair with a charming stranger Harry (George Clooney) who is also the man Cox's wife is having an affair with. Throw into the mix Ted (Richard Jenkins) as the gym owner in love with Linda who tries to help her out and things begin to unravel...

Nixu1980 18.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Burn After Reading (DVD)

A mixed bag from the Coens

Advantages: Better for the second viewing
Disadvantages: How many people will watch it twice?

...a master (or mistress) at being cold and obnoxious. Most people will be wondering why I haven't mentioned George Clooney, who plays Harry, and Brad Pitt, who plays Chad, yet. That's because I think the film could easily have been made without them. Clooney is a Coen brothers' favourite, having already appeared in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty, both of which I hated. That didn't bode terribly well for Clooney here - I just don't think he does comedy all that well. If you can call comic acting exaggerating every facial expression, then I suppose he might just be funny. As it is, he is just annoying - to me at least. I'm sure he's got plenty of fans out there who will disagree. Brad Pitt as Chad is also a little irritating. Chad is an exercise junkie, barely able to keep still for a second, and is, to put it politely, a bit...

sunmeilan 01.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Burn After Reading (DVD)