Okay, Mr. Piano Man — it's time for a new one. Nobody said this, probably, but it really has been a long time since Billy Joel's last pop album, River of Dreams, came out in 1993. (Granted, he released the classical offering Fantasies & Delusions in 2007, as well as some one-offs and covers for tribute albums, but even those are around a decade old now.)
Now, the legendary singer-songwriter has delivered his first proper new single in 17 years, "Turn the Lights Back On." Joel wrote the palatial piano ballad with Arthur Bacon, Wayne Hector and superproducer Freddy Wexler, who has worked with everyone from Justin Bieber to Céline Dion.
As Stereogum's Tom Breihan pointed out, this type of cinematic, old-school pop song doesn't really exist anymore, although Olivia Rodrigo's "vampire" and maybe some Adele cuts get kind of close. Joel sounds completely unvarnished vocally, singing without any grit of aging to be detected.
The song grows from modest beginnings into something larger than life and chockful of melodic interest. It feels like a time machine to a different era of radio, and it really is a marvel — again, as Breihan noted — to experience a song with this much sweep!
Listen to "Turn the Lights Back On" below. Joel will also be returning to the Grammys stage this Sunday (February 4) to perform at the ceremony for the first time in 22 years.
