Elton John: Too Low For Zero - 1983
After several years in the (comparative) wilderness, some people were beginning to wonder if Elton John was still relevant or whether he now was just another washed up has-been. There was a convincing argument to say that he hadn't put out a decent album since 1975's Captain Fantastic. Some occasional moments of brilliance are found here, but not too much more, let's be brutally honest. That said, this was easily one of his most successful albums, so what the hell do I know? There is an eighties poppy vibrancy to it, I have to concede.
Punk and its rages had been and gone, new wave too, even New Romanticism was getting passé. It had all morphed into pop - synthesised, often electronic, drum machine pop. Elton John could actually find his place back in this milieu - as a grand old queen, loved by the old, middle-aged and young alike. He reunited with his muse Bernie Taupin (not before time), got together his old band and released this album that got close to recapturing the feeling of those halcyon days. Not quite though, the album was still somewhat blighted by the excesses of eighties production to be another Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Let's concentrate on the good points though and there are some.
Are we still standing?....
The opener, Cold As Christmas (In the Middle Of The Year) was a melodic, but quite bleak and poignant piano-driven ballad to begin the album on a laid-back note. Now for I'm Still Standing. This fine single changed that laid-back vibe - a perfect eighties upbeat pounding pop song, that would suit both the clubs and the mainstream radio.
The title track was catchy and tuneful, but with a bit too much eighties percussion for my liking and grand synthesiser sweeps. There is still room for some classic Elton piano work, however. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good track.
Religion was a chugging rocker with some Stonesy guitar in the background and a wry lyric about evangelism. It is more than ok, but Elton's voice sounds far weaker than it did ten years earlier and that whole bluesy rock groove the band used to have had disappeared to be replaced by a much slicker, polished sound, but one that, for me, had lost some of its grit and soul. Again, though, the song is still a good one, so maybe I'm splitting hairs! I think I am. There is something a bit muffled about the sound on this album. Play Religion, or I'm Still Standing and then play something from Don't Shoot Me or Caribou and I guarantee you will notice the difference.
I Guess Why They Call It The Blues suffers in the same way from a half-baked production, but even that can't detract from what was a classic Elton John single. Soulful, catchy and instant. No arguments to this song's classic status.
Crystal, however, is far too "synth pop" for my liking. A bit of a throwaway this one. It begins with foreboding wind sounds, like Funeral For A Friend and then goes all Euro Pop, electronic keyboards and all. Shame. For many people, though, this album was the first Elton John album they bought and it consequently means a lot to them and they think it's great. I was there in the seventies, so for me it's different.
For me, I find it quite a disheartening experience listening to this album having just listened to Madman Across The Water, Honky Château and Don't Shoot Me. Also, later albums like the excellent Peachtree Road are vastly superior to this, in my opinion. Not just in terms of the quality of the songs, but in the sound quality too. Give me Peachtree Road over this any day.Kiss The Bridge was a single and a punchy, singalong rocker it was too (although, once again, strangely muffled) and Whipping Boy is similar, although much faster, and played at a fair old pace. Elton almost falls off the edge. Again, both of them are acceptable, but I can't get too far beyond the lifeless sound. I really miss the bluesy Elton on albums like this. It is far too pop for my taste.
Saint is another potentially good track that I feel could have been produced better. There is also something about Elton's voice during this period that I just found too high in pitch. It had lost its bluesy growl of the seventies and had yet to get to the warm depth of the late nineties and beyond.
The closer, the grand piano and strings ballad One More Arrow again has a high voiced Elton grating somewhat on what is once again not a bad song. It could have been one of those great album closers, Like Curtains or High Flying Bird. However, it doesn't actually even sound like Elton, particularly. Come on, that's probably being a bit unfair!
As I said, I know many, many people deeply love this album, but it is not one of my favourites, and I own every album he has released. I understand the album's appeal, but like mid-eighties music in general, it just wasn't quite to my taste. Repeated listens, as with many things, however, warm my cynical to the eighties heart.
The non-album material from this album's sessions were -
Earn While You Learn, a lively organ and piano dominated instrumental. It is ok, but it goes on far too long at getting on for seven minutes, by the end of it much of its appeal has gone.
Even longer at over seven minutes is Dreamboat, a track with a nice, gentle vocal and some attractive slightly funky guitar parts. It has vague hints of Betty Wright’s Clean Up Woman. Despite its length, it strangely doesn’t get tiresome. It just sort of drifts gently along.
The Retreat is a more typical Elton John piano ballad with hints of the Tumbleweed Connection era about it until the eighties synthesisers take over. It is the best of these three tracks.
