Elton John: Ice On Fire - 1985
This was one of the slightly less patchy eighties albums from Elton John, but, being released in 1985, it is still blighted by the worst excesses of eighties electronic, synthesised keyboard instrumentation.
It is very much of its time, unsurprising, as Elton very much liked to ride contemporary waves. There is supposed to be guitar (Davey Johnstone) on the album, but he is only audible occasionally. There are no Saturday Night's Alright riffs, that's for sure. Before this came Breaking Hearts. After it came Leather Jackets. This was, unfortunately a dour period which led to it being just "another Elton John album".
Let's count those ten tin soldiers in a row....
The opener, Your Town, has a funky, disco-ish rhythm with a good rubber-band bass sound, but its horn breaks sound synthesised as do some of the drums. It is ok, but certainly nothing special. All very mid-eighties. Cry To Heaven is lovely, actually, and it has a bit of discernible guitar. One instrument that survived unscathed during the eighties was the bass. There was a distinctive eighties bass sound, such as heard on The Christians' Ideal World that dominates this song beautifully and melodically. Soul Glove is a brassy, very hooky song, but again, very much of its time.
That bass line returns, wonderfully, for the gorgeous Nikita that rode high above the eighties fog. It is still one of my favourite Elton songs. It is evocative, atmospheric and makes me so nostalgic for those October-November days of 1985. Certain songs just do that, this is one of them. Incidentally, that killer bass line was played by David Paton, once of seventies group Pilot. Too Young is pleasant enough, but sort of forgettable.Wrap Her Up is a truly dreadful eighties dance song, featuring additional vocals from George Michael. It is positively awful, particularly in its embarrassing name-checking of various female celebrities at the end. It is one of my least favourite Elton songs of all time. Satellite is Talking Heads-ish in places and has a reasonable groove to it. It is certainly better than the previous track. Tell Me What The Papers Say is pretty awful too, buried in eighties keyboards and drum dance rhythms. Sorry, but it is just pretty damn ordinary. "Coal mines closed down, nobody's working underground today..." was not one of Bernie Taupin's best lines.
Once again Candy By The Pound is nothing special. It is almost not really like the Elton John we knew from the seventies. Most artists put out some bad albums in the mid-eighties, but because Elton has always put out albums very regularly, he seemed to release more than most that were thus afflicted. With Shoot Down The Moon we closed with a mournful, classical-sounding piano ballad, but one that is loaded with class and quality.
The song ends on a high note what really was quite a mediocre album, in retrospect.
The non-album extra material that appeared with this album's later release included -
The Man Who Never Died, a Song For Guy type grandiose instrumental. Like that track, it has minimalist vocals right at the very end.
Restless, which was an upbeat live cut of the track from Breaking Hearts and Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word and I’m Still Standing also appear in impressive, enjoyable live versions.
