 " Honesty " is a piano ballad with synthesizer embellishments . It opens with " sad and tender " piano chords . According to Ken Bielen in his book The Words and Music of Billy Joel , Liberty DeVitto 's drums and cymbal crashes , remind listeners that " the track is a predecessor of the power ballads of the 1980s and 1990s " . It talks about the inherent lack of honesty even in the closest of relationships . In the song Joel sings the lines " Honesty is such a lonely word " . Joel further sings about wearing his heart on his sleeve in " Honesty " . According to Chuck Klosterman of The New York Times , " [ the song ] implies that the only way you can tell that someone really cares about you is if they tell you you 're bad . " " Leningrad " ( 1989 ) , a song from Joel 's eleventh studio album Storm Front , has been compared to " Honesty " . According to the sheet music published on the website Musicnotes.com by Faber Music , " Honesty " is a pop rock and classical rock song written in the key of B ♭ major . The song is set in common time and performed in a slow tempo of 80 beats per minute . Joel 's vocals range from the note of Bb2 to Bb4 . 
