If you believe the headlines, the album has ‘died’ more times than a third-rate comedian. First Napster was to be its executioner, then iTunes and the iPod, followed by the music streaming services.
Despite the best efforts of this technological hit-squad, though, one glance at the release schedule confirms that, yes, albums are still being made, but it seems that someone forgot to tell Billy Joel.
Asked by Variety if the release of recent single Turn The Lights Back On will herald the arrival of another Joel long-player, he gave a decisive “Nope!” before going on to explain why.
"Who makes albums anymore, anyway?" he asks, seemingly rhetorically. "I think the only person making new albums these days is Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. I don't know other people who make albums. I don't know what the marketing of that is like now."
Joel has expressed his admiration for both of these artists before. In a 2021 interview with USA he went as far as to compare Swift’s impact to that of the Beatles, and he invited Olivia Rodrigo on stage to perform with him in 2022.
To be fair to Joel, although he’s seemingly oblivious to the best efforts of record company PR teams, the truth is that he has another reason for not wanting to put out another album, and it relates to the creative process itself.
"There's this big black beast with 88 teeth that wants to bite my fingers off while I'm writing,” he confesses. “I drive myself nuts. It's just not as good as I want it to be. It's a great deal of torment, and I decided I don't want to put myself through that anymore. I used to have drinking problems and all kinds of self-hate when I was writing, because I set the bar so high. It's not something I miss. I love making music."
One thing that Joel doesn’t love, though, is appearing on TV. "I don't like being on camera,” he says. “I'm camera-shy. I always feel like a geek when I'm on TV because I'm static at the piano, I can't move around. I can't use body language. I'm stuck at the piano.”
Joel also has concerns with the sound issues that can plague TV performances, having struggled to hear himself during the second of two Super Bowl National Anthem performances that he’s given over the years.
"It was a mess, and people thought I was using Auto-Tune or I was using some kind of phoney corrector, which I'd never use," he says. "That's what happens on TV!"
Don’t expect another Joel TV special anytime soon, then - or, indeed, another album. If that’s what you’re looking for, go and talk to Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo.
