Elton John: 21 At 33 - 1980
After the disastrous experiment that was Victim Of Love and its disco meddling, Elton John returned to a certain amount of normality with this album. Still part-estranged from Bernie Taupin for a while, (he contributed three songs) Gary Osborne was still his main lyricist. It is not a bad album though, in places.
It is notable, though, that the Taupin songs are three of the best ones - Chasing The Crown, Two Rooms At The End Of The World and White Lady, White Powder. We were heading into the eighties, though, and the worst aspects of that decade were beginning to make themselves known via drum machines, layered synthesised keyboards and the like. A Single Man, from 1978, for example, had none of that sort of thing. It had the band playing "proper" rock, still.
Let's get a load of white powder.....
Chasing The Crown is a thumping, bassy rocker to open with which was reassuring after the previous album. He was playing piano again, too, which he hadn't done on that previous one. It felt like we had got our Elton back on this. As I said, the relief when listening to it after Victim Of Love is just palpable.
The beguiling, melodic Little Jeannie was a single and a most fetching one it was too, with an addictive hook and Elton on fine vocal form. There are slight hints of Daniel on the song, just every now and then.
My personal favourite on the album is the big, dramatic ballad Sartorial Eloquence which has an excellent build up to a very catchy chorus. I remember buying it as a single upon its release. I loved it and i still do.
Two Rooms At The End Of The World is a really good, riffy and rocking number while White Lady, White Powder is an exhilarating, singalong ode to cocaine from an Elton who was getting increasingly dependent. It was a song addressing his problem, but almost admitting there wasn't much he could do about it. Both these songs are absolute corkers, the best two rockers on the album.
The desperate plea of Dear God comes next, maybe quite appropriately. These are all really impressive numbers. Check out Elton's piano at the end of Two Rooms. He's back. What a killer song White Powder is too, as I have already mentioned, co-written with old mate Bernie, as indeed was Two Rooms. You can tell, can't you?
Now we get an appealing ballad in Never Gonna Fall In Love Again, co-written with fellow gay man Tom Robinson and then comes Take Me Back, which is an upbeat, country-ish number with Elton adopting that strange, twangy voice he does on occasions, with a fiddle break in the middle. It could have dated from ten years earlier from its vibe and sound.
Give Me The Love is a slightly dull but perfectly pleasant closer, albeit with some nice orchestrated backing, to what was actually quite a short album. It has that typical Elton brassy funk sound that he had utilised for a decade now. The co-writer is, interestingly, Judie "Stay With Me Till Dawn" Tzuke.
It certainly wasn't a special album in any way, it had its high points, but it is not one out of Elton's many albums, all of which I own, that I return to very often. That said, I have been giving a little more love recently and it is growing on me. My advice is not to totally reject it.
