There seems to be a sort of revisionist battle amongst critics when debating Elton John\u2019s best album. One side holds up Goodbye Yellow Brick Road<\/i> (celebrating its 40 year anniversary this year) as the perfect encapsulation of what the Rocket Man was always about. The double LP spawned some of pop\u2019s music most legendary songs and found John at the absolute peak of his powers and popularity. The other camp looks even further back to 1971\u2019s Tumbleweed Connection,<\/i> citing its country influence as John\u2019s most complete piece of work. <\/p>\n
Elton himself has quite frequently mentioned a story in which at some point in the early 2000\u2019s, he and lyricist partner Bernie Taupin determined they were done catering to the whims of the pop scene and intentionally began looking to their own past for inspiration. 2001\u2019s Songs From The West Coast<\/i> marked the first entry in this new endeavor, and from that point on, each subsequent album has seen John attempt to recapture his past glory. His approach has revealed which side of the aforementioned argument John seems to value more. I\u2019ll give you a hint: think less Wizard Of Oz and more John Wayne.<\/p>\n
Tumbleweed Connection<\/i>\u2019s Americana production style was all the rage in the late \u201860s and \u201870s; hell, The Eagles went on to make a career out of it. By that point in his career, John had the nucleus of his band and future success, but that tight unit was still two albums away. Still, the sound of the album was stripped down much further than Elton\u2019s self-titled American debut album. Bernie Taupin\u2019s fascination with the American West provided the proper context for John to take the route he did. The album drips with imagery of the South, the Civil War, dusty old towns where one is born and one dies.<\/p>\n
From a conceptual standpoint, The Diving Board<\/i> doesn\u2019t quite give itself wholeheartedly into the kind of theme that Tumbleweed <\/i>did; <\/i>it\u2019s the production style that T Bone Burnett attempts to recreate. Whereas the Burnett produced The Union <\/i>sought to shine a light on a forgotten talent (Leon Russell), The Diving Board <\/i>is an album where Elton John\u2019s piano playing<\/i> is at the forefront of the entire record; something that arguably hasn\u2019t been given the spotlight in 30 years. Between the opportunity for three piano solos and a jazzy interlude during \u201cMy Quicksand,\u201d John gets to demonstrate that he is still one of the best pianists in rock. For that alone, The Diving Board<\/i> achieves a certain measure of success.<\/p>\n
When an artist has a single make the Billboard Top 40 for decades in a row, it\u2019s pretty clear that particular person has a talent for the hook. The Diving Board,<\/i> however, is gloriously devoid of a boss hit-bound single, which is definitely an approach that will alienate a section of Elton\u2019s fan base. For those who have some experience with John\u2019s back catalogue, there a few treasures waiting to be discovered. \u201cOscar Wilde Gets Out\u201d is a shining example of John\u2019s past reincarnate; when I say this song could be placed on Madman Across The Water<\/i>, I truly do mean it. Taupin\u2019s delicious stream of consciousness narrative is coupled with a musical cousin to \u201cThe Ballad Of Danny Bailey.\u201d \u201cVoyeur\u201d bears the closest resemblance to Elton\u2019s pop hits, but instead of merely focusing on a strong hook, John worked on building a strong song. The track ebbs and flows, but is not as top heavy as something like \u201cSad Songs Say So Much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taupin\u2019s lyrics are generally criticized for being oblique and hackneyed, but the man would admit he is more concerned with providing the listener with a mental picture than necessarily having a lyric that follows a conventional narrative. It\u2019s those pictures that led me to enjoy The Diving Board<\/i> from a lyrical standpoint far more than some previous albums (Peachtree Road, The One). <\/i>The album opener \u201cOcean\u2019s Away\u201d pays tribute to those who fought and fell in World War II, but in an evocative sense that avoids jingoism and clich\u00e9s. \u201cThe Ballad Of Blind Tom\u201d is a classic Taupin character study, a recounting of the life of Tom Wiggins, an autistic savant from the turn of the century. \u201cCan\u2019t Stay Alone Tonight\u201d and \u201cTake This Dirty Water\u201d actively recall the country flavored tinges of \u201cNo Shoe Strings For Louise\u201d or \u201cCountry Comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word that Elton himself has used to describe The Diving Board<\/i> is \u201cmature.\u201d The hunger that youth brings just isn\u2019t in him anymore, which makes the fact that John keeps on attempting to travel back in time musically fascinating. The Elton John that started out in the late \u201860s was far different from the Elton John that would appear within five years. That focus on song craft and story on the early records shifted into something completely different. For all the talent that Elton John possesses, for all of the things he has learned over a lifetime in the music business, there is still one irrefutable truth that he cannot avoid: you can never truly go back. This album is admittedly as close as John can get to that period of his career, but the fact that he can\u2019t reach that point doesn\u2019t take away from the quality that is present here. If anything, The Diving Board<\/i> is the album equivalent of a flashback; it sounds like it should, but doesn\u2019t feel<\/i> like it should.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":31609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5678],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43315","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\/43315","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=43315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43315"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}