It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Good Die Young"
(This review is a co-write by me, Annie Zaleski, and my evangelical-Moz pal Kami, who is in town from New York for this show. Her qualifications include the lyrics "Trouble loves me/Trouble needs me" tattooed on her ankles and the fact that this is her fourth show of Morrissey's 2008 spring tour she's attended, among other things. All photos by Todd Owyoung.)
SLIDESHOW
Me: Morrissey's 2007 birthday show at the Pageant was amazing - but it was also unfortunate, because it set the bar really