Cold Spring Harbor [Enhanced, Original recording remastered, Import]

According to a few reviewers on Amazon.com, in this album Billy Joel's voice has got slightly higher pitch due to the technical errors engineers made. More detail in following;[...].
But that does not detract a bit from the fresh originality of this great debut album. The most songs show little resemblance to his later style, but they already bear the hallmark of his heart-aching lyricism and stunningly intricate piano acompaniment. In the song like 'You can make me free' or 'You look so good to me' you can detect influences by Paul McCartney or Gilbert O'Sullivan, the artists Joel admired greatly. There's a touch of James Taylor and Carole King in 'Turn around' and 'Got to begin again'. The wistful ballads like 'Why Judy why' or 'Tomorrow is today' could have been written by Jim Croce.

Although Billy Joel was searching for his own style at this stage, there is not a single weak song in this album and it's got a foretaste of the greatness to come. It's a great shame that the initial technical complication has spoiled these masterpieces and that the album went up only to 202 in The Billboard in 1972. I hope someone will one day resurrect the original version with corrected pitch, it's not impossible with today's technology, I think.

In 1971, after an unremarkable and commercially unsuccessful five-year musical career with The Hassles and Attila, Billy Joel signed a terrible, unprofitable 10-album record contract and released his solo debut, 'Cold Spring Harbor', named after a hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Unfortunately, this album also flopped but - thankfully - Billy's successful career has meant that this under-appreciated gem finally reached the wider audience it initially deserved..

Although very rich in melody and filled with Billy's expressive trademark piano, 'Cold Spring Harbor' is a bit of an oddity and sounds very different to all of his other albums, having an almost folk-y sound running through it. The album is very fresh-sounding and quite simplistic in instrumentation and production but this only adds to the charm and appeal of this release. Indeed, if you compare this collection with the accomplished nature of some of Billy's later work, 'Cold Spring Harbor' has a stripped-down unpretentiousness and honesty which makes it very emotionally engaging.

The first track, 'She's Got A Way' is one of my very favourite Billy Joel songs and, in my opinion, one of the finest songs he has ever written. With not much more than Billy's voice and a piano backing, 'She's Got A Way' is a heartstoppingly romantic ballad which has brought unexpected tears to my eyes many times. The second composition is 'You Can Make Me Free', a catchy piece of powerful pop-rock which could easily have been a hit single for any established artist of the early seventies. 'Everybody Loves You Now' is an up-tempo song based on a fast, rolling piano riff which manages to be a bitter and yet good-humoured tale of unrequited love for an egotist - it's seriously brilliant stuff. Following such raucousness, the delicate 'Why Judy Why' is quite a stark contrast, being an acoustic-guitar based, introspective, rather lovely, ballad of hurt and heartache.

The quality doesn't end there. A tumbling, cascading piano line and imagery-laden lyrics make the aurally caressing 'Falling Of The Rain' a real pleasure to listen to. 'Turn Around' and 'You Look So Good To Me' are both gentle, interesting songs, the latter featuring a great harmonica solo. The wistful 'Tomorrow Is Today' is one of the album's highlights, a light/dark contrast track which boasts one of the best vocal lines Billy has ever delivered, backed with a truly memorable piano accompaniment. The penultimate piece, 'Nocturne' is a truly beautiful classically-inspired instrumental and then the album comes to its conclusion with 'Got To Begin Again', a gently-inspiring song about picking yourself up when you're down.

To surmise, there isn't a single bad track on this album and, from start to finish, it is an absolute joy. In fact, my only gripe is that, at just under thirty minutes, it's way too short! For any existing Billy Joel fans who haven't discovered 'Cold Spring Harbor' yet, I would urge you to invest in this wonderful release - it is well worth owning and may even become one of your favourites, just as it has become one of mine.