Word: nylon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
LISTEN TO EVERY SONG on Billy Joel's new album exactly once. It's the most effective way for one-time or current fans of the Long Island pop star to purge any remaining faith they may have dutifully maintained in this man's music. The Nylon Curtain leaves no doubt: This once poignant chronicler of middle-class America has become a terribly frazzled music industry giant, offering a slick package with no redeemable contents...
...hedonism and pretentiousness in "Sleeping With The Television On" and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." But in his latest effort. Joel confirms his status as a songwriter swept up in his own whirlwind fame and alienated from the normality he used to celebrate and glorify. The Nylon Curtain so emphatically reveals Joel's emotional detachment that the album serves a worthy purpose. With this complete songwriting tumble, Joel can essentially he enjoyed for his previous work and officially forgotten...
Although he is now unable to perceive and describe familiar moment in modern life, Joel apparently has perceived his own slide into sweet-sounding fluff, and on The Nylon Curtain he desperately tries to do something about it. In a last-gasp attempt to attain relevance, he sings about Issues: you know, Unemployment, Social Pressure, Viet Nam, and, of course, Sesame Street. Instead of seizing an elevated song-writing status. Joel glaringly reveals his own detachment from the emotions and situations he describes to others...
...FORGET, though, that these are not just any poor songs. These are Important Ones confronting modern day issues. Apparently seeing the potential listening public among the growing ranks of the unemployed. Joel begins The Nylon Curtain with "Allentown," an upbeat ode to those who are out of work in the Pennsylvanian factory town. Joel sprinkles insincere comments about broken American promises in between the vacuous refrain "And we're living here in Allentown." "Iron and coke and chromium steel," Joel chirps cheerily...
There is nothing wrong with loving nature. The trouble is that in the commercial rush to exploit this popular sentiment the notion of what is natural is getting stretched absurdly out of shape. It is even possible these days to see references to colors called natural vinyl and natural nylon. Considering nature's own glaring penchant for diverse and gaudy colors, it is illogical that any anemic shade should be called (as convention calls it) natural. And it is preposterous to put that label on synthetic stuff. If man-made plastics possess a natural color, then it is fair...