I admit it; I’m a music-aholic. Twelve steps won’t do me any
\ngood, and I don’t think there are any groups I can join to discuss
\nmy problem. What is the main symptom, you ask? For me, it is
\nbinge-purchasing. It’s tough for me to say no to music, and as a
\nresult my collection grows larger and larger by the day. As a
\nresult, there are a good number of albums that have gotten lost in
\nthe mix, doomed to remain relatively unlistened to unless fate
\nintervenes. Enter
\nThe Big Picture<\/i>.<\/p>\n
This sucker has been sitting in my CD tower for years, after Dad
\npassed it on to me. Even after Elton John rocketed to one of the
\ntop spots in the prestigious “Jeff’s Favorite Artists” list, it
\nstill didn’t get a spin in the ol’ stereo. Most likely, the
\nsituation would have continued, but I happened to stumble upon a
\ndebate on an Elton John forum regarding
\nPeachtree Road<\/i> and
\nThe Big Picture<\/i>. Seeing as how I couldn’t discuss any
\nmaterial from
\nThe Big Picture<\/i>, it was high time that it got a listen.
\nWhile this isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination,
\nElton turns in an enjoyable performance that’s only hindered by an
\noutdated sound.<\/p>\n
Face it folks, who does pop better than Elton John? Sure, the
\nman has dabbled in other forms of music, such as rock, disco, and
\nhell even some prog rock. However, pop has been his calling card,
\nand
\nThe Big Picture<\/i> does nothing to buck the trend. Strong
\nmelodies abound, the only weaker efforts coming with the two
\nclosing songs, “I Can’t Steer My Heart Clear Of You,” and “Wicked
\nDreams.” The second of those two songs is particularly
\ndisappointing; it never really changes tempo and fails to excite
\nwhere previous tracks succeed. Luckily, the rest of the album more
\nthan makes up for the two duds at the end.<\/p>\n
Usually, the best songs on an Elton album are the singles. There
\nare of course exceptions to the rule, and
\nThe Big Picture<\/i> is one of those. While the number one single
\n“Something About The Way You Look Tonight” successfully fuses
\nelements of rock, pop, and gospel together, there’s another song
\nthat does it even better. “If The River Can Bend” has to be
\nconsidered among Elton’s best of the ’90s; the vocals are powerful,
\nthe string arrangements recall the glory days of
\nMadman Across the Water<\/i>, and echoes of “Burn Down The
\nMission” permeate throughout the wild, guitar-screaming final
\nminute.<\/p>\n
The onslaught of stellar album tracks continues with numbers
\nsuch as “The Big Picture” and “January.” In the former, there’s a
\nhint of things that were to come with
\nSongs From The West Coast<\/i>; the track reminded me very much
\nof “I Want Love.” “January” has the honor of being one of the more
\nunique songs in Elton’s later catalogue. For roughly four minutes,
\nwe are treated to essentially three different songs combined into
\none. There are glimpses of the past with very “Philadelphia
\nFreedom”-likestrings, as well as hints of folk and classic rock to
\nboot.<\/p>\n
So far there’s been nothing but praise for
\nThe Big Picture<\/i>, so what’s the catch? Well, this album was
\nrecorded in 1997, but it might as well have been 1987. It doesn’t
\nseem that a human drummer was used for these sessions, and the
\nsynthesizers certainly got a workout. The result is a
\nsometimes-muddy sound that weakens songs such as “Live Like
\nHorses.” This track features another strong melody from Elton, and
\na brilliant lyric from Bernie Taupin, but it drowns under the
\nweight of all the excess noise. To hear this song the way it should
\nhave been recorded, check out the version featuring Pavarotti. In
\nits current form, “Live Like Horses” stirs up a few feelings, in
\nthe latter it’s a grippingly powerful song.<\/p>\n
I won’t hold the sound too much against
\nThe Big Picture<\/i>: there are too many good songs for that.
\nHowever it does weaken the album to a certain degree and that’s a
\nshame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5678],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38343","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-elton-john","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38343"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38343"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}