Album Review: Elton John - Jump Up! (1982)

Oh bugger.  I'm going to have to write yet another review of an Elton John album!  Now, it isn't because I'm reviewing Elton John - on the contrary, I'm enjoying this album a lot.  It's just that I try to avoid writing albums by the same artist within the space of a year.  And I never intended to listen to this album to begin with, but having forgotten to keep an eye on the Spotify player after playing "Empty Garden (Hey, Hey, Johnny)", I accidentally stumbled into yet another interesting song, "Princess."  From there, I decided to go over the rest of the album.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that what looked like yet another eighties contract filler from an artist who was at their best during the heyday of the seventies was actually a pretty good record.  Bernie Taupin reckons this was one of their worst albums ever, but I beg to differ - "Spiteful Child", "Princess", and even "I Am Your Robot" are remarkably pleasant.  Only two songs really brought the attention of Mr. Sandman here - "Blue Eyes" and "All Quiet On the Western Front" are a tad dull, but in the end, my brief period of inattention proved to be one of my finer boo-boos to date.  A good one.  A-

Album Review: Elton John - Made in England (1995)

My initial reaction to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was at best lukewarm. Sure, there were the hits like "Bennie and the Jets" and "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" that always got played, but the rest of the album I felt was tepid and often lackluster. That was the first time I heard the album, which was a while ago now.  Second time 'round was a different story altogether. Once I started to dig songs such as "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1904-1935)" and "All The Girls Love Alice", I soon began to consume the rest of the record with ever-increasing fervor.  It's rare for me to take to an album the second time around - Avalon by Roxy Music is perhaps my best example, and incidentally, an excellent example of falling for an album the second time around that is evidently shared by many critics. Now that I'm reviewing Elton John's 1995 album Made in England, an album I've owned since 1997, I once again am finding myself in a similar predicament, with some slight differences.  I initially bought the album solely because of three songs - "Believe", "Made in England" and "Blessed" - all great songs, and of course, they were the ones you heard on the radio, and therefore the reason I purchased the album in the first place.  I had given the album a full play though a long time ago and at the time didn't think too much of it on the whole, bar the aforementioned trio of radio hits.  But now, I'm finding the album to be much more palatable, and often pleasant. "Cold" and "Pain" are remarkably good, and "Belfast" is still somewhat on the "Meh" side. "Man" isn't too bad, either.  Still, it ain't no Avalon or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.  But I'm still glad that I decided to pay it another visit. Not bad, not bad at all. B+

Album Review: Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Yet another album for which I had to listen to multiple times in order to appreciate it, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road from Elton John is one of the best-selling albums in the world for good reasons.  And whilst its growth on me isn't quite as pervasive as the likes of Roxy Music's Avalon, it nonetheless shows that it's more than the sum of its radio hits.  Yes, there's of course "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Candle In The Wind", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and my personal all time favorite, "Bennie And The Jets", but any of his "best of" compilations will supply those if that's all you want to know about.  Frankly, I'm much more interested in the likes of "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding", "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock & Roll)", "All The Girls Love Alice", and especially "The Ballad Of Danny Bailey (1909-34)" - it's the most Eltonesque ditty I've heard to date, and I can't stop playing it.  It's about time I reviewed this album, and I'm better for having listened to it in the first place.  A very good record indeed - 30 million plus album sales say it all really.  A-