Glass Houses

For those who only knew Billy Joel from his impeccably crafted, multiple Grammy-winning '70s triumphs The Stranger and 52nd Street, this 1980 collection might have sounded like a sassy throwaway on first listen. In fact, its spirit is closer in tone to contemporary rock (indeed it won him the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance) and Joel's rollicking early club days. If the stone-throwing, black leather jacket clad singer on the cover wasn't clue enough, Joel's opening blast of New Wave-bred energy, "You May Be Right," assured fans that the weightier concerns of his recent commercial triumphs would be taking a back seat on this breezy ride. The infectious "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" presages the roots-rock retrenchment of 1983's An Innocent Man, while upbeat numbers like "Sleeping With the Television On," "Leyna" and the downright attitudinal "Close to the Borderline" show that Joel wasn't about to be confined by the soft rock stereotyping that had come in the wake of his success.