The argument is headed in this direction: He’s not quite the hard-rock star he sometimes tried to be, but he’s a better pop songwriter than you remember, and sometimes a great one. Lately, though - like every artist from a generation back - he is undergoing a critical reassessment, despite some dissenters. Robert Christgau called his 1976 album Turnstiles “obnoxious,” which it is not. They used to beat him up for his perceived lack of edge. Most of those charted in the era when you had to sell a lot of records to get there, too.įor critics, he’s a problem. That’s about a quarter of the songs he’s written and recorded. The New Yorker’s profile of him last year pointed out that he’s had 33 songs in the Top 40. * He has established a standing residency there, like a guy who plays a monthly nightclub gig, except that the club happens to seat 18,000.īy the measure of hit-making, his stats are staggering. It’s been 21 years since Joel released a new pop album, yet he sold out the arena 12 times in 2014 alone, and he’ll play his second (also sold-out) show of 2015 on February 18. Photo: Maya Robinson and Photo by Larry Marano/Getty Imagesīilly Joel is the closest thing Madison Square Garden has to a sure thing - certainly more than the Knicks or the Rangers or the Liberty.