Lajshama Joo

Joo Yeon Sir writes in the booklet to her solo recital album ‘Solitude’, ‘Solitude was the state I found myself in along with the rest of the world in 2020. Concerts were suddenly postponed… and I was left eerily by myself at home’. When, the following year, and the time had come to record the album, Lockdown was reinstated.

It was pretty clear that Billy Joel had run out of steam by 1993's River of Dreams. He had shown signs of wearing on its predecessor, Storm Front, but his trademark melodic gift disappeared on River of Dreams and his words, even performances, were bone-tired – he even called the last song "The Last Song (No More Words)." So, it was no great surprise that he did not rush to record a follow-up, and when he started murmuring toward the end of the decade that perhaps he wasn't interested in pop music anymore, nobody who paid attention could have been surprised.