Now all we need is a new Axl Rose record!

□ [“Billy Joel - "Turn the Lights Back On"]

I wasn't expecting to live in a world where Billy Joel release a new song, but that's what the 21st century has done to us.  Because there aren't enough aging rock stars putting out material no one has ever heard before, apparently.  It was released on February 1 and I've just heard about it, that shows you how up I am on modern music, especially by artists that are high on my list of favorites.

Apparently this was an unfinished work that Billy Joel gave to another songwriter who finished it.  There's nothing special about it, although I will admit it sounds like a real song, which is more than anything else I've heard in the last decade or so.  No one will ever call it the best Billy Joel song ever, but if you want to hear four minutes of his work that you haven't heard before, it's fine.

It does sound very generic, and I mean that in a good way.  I'm sure there's live albums, but he's recorded very little since 1994.  The last release was a Paul McCartney tribute album in 2014 and this is his first new original song since "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah" in 2007, and he didn't even sing lead on the latter.  The point is, he definitely sounds like Billy Joel here, and that is a good thing.  It might not be your favorite track, but it would fit right in on any of his albums.

Trying to figure out the reason these people are suddenly putting something out now.  Are they getting close to the end or is there some signal they're supposed to put out at this point?  Similar to the new songs being generic and boring, regardless of quality, the fact that the public isn't thrilled by new work from these celebrities shows how they've torn down the world, in their prime and their absence.