On his latest album, Billy Joel uses a new producer, Mick Jones, to create a harder-edged rock sound. Overall, the results are mixed. Most of the tracks are up-tempo, the best of these including "State of Grace" and "I Go to Extremes." In a few places, however, the songs become so uniform that it's hard to tell them apart.

Billy Joel, along with Phil Collins and a handful of other songwriters, are incorporating "political activism" into their lyrics. The reason Billy Joel is at times more effective is that he speaks from personal experience. For example, in "Leningrad," he sings about his relationship with a friend in Russia and then applies it to a broader spectrum of peace between our countries. One song that does not work is "We Didn't Start The Fire," where Joel recites a rather useless string of world events and figures from the past decade.

Despite its downfalls, I would recommend "Storm Front" to any Billy Joel fan. Perhaps his next album will contain more surprises.