Elton John doesn’t release albums at nearly the same pace he did back in his heyday. I remember when it was an off year that didn’t see the release of two albums. It was quite a feat. Now he’s down to one every three or four years, if you don’t count all of the repackaged greatest hits or live compilations that his company has issued.
Today I picked up his brand new one, Peachtree Road. I never comment in much depth on a new album after only a single listen, because there is something that we used to call the fungus effect. A new album, even by a much-loved performer, may take a little while to grow on you. It’s an amazing phenomenon, really. I remember getting new albums and thinking on first listen: phaw, such dreck. What a disappointment. Then, after a few listens: hmmm, maybe this is better than I originally thought. When you give such a recording some effort and time, it repays three-fold. I don’t know if I could explain why such a thing happens…and it may not do so for all people. When it does for me, though, I feel rewarded. Like I’ve somehow been a small part of the creative process, or that I’ve dug deep and found something that I might have casually dismissed.
Peachtree Road is mellow for the most part. So far, none of the songs have stood out for me, but I’m not giving the album full attention; it’s playing in the background. It’s being compared to Tumbleweed Connection, an album that is probably more of a fan favorite than one that is well-known among his more casual listeners. It has a bit of a country-southern-gospel-bluesy feel to it. There’s a lot going on in the lyrics.
If anyone asks where I am for the next few days, I’ll be right here, on Peachtree Road.
Thanks for the review Bev! I had forgot this was coming out so I’m headed to the store to pick it up tonight. I’m very anxious to listen to it. Tumbleweed Connection is perhaps my favorite Elton album and I’m very fond of “country-southern-gospel-blusey music”. Have you heard of the Black Keys? They are a rock/blues band that David Niall Wilson turned me on to. I think you’d like them, Bev. I think if you google them you can find their site and listen to a few sample tracks.
I know just what you mean, Bev. I recently bought “Enjoy Every Sandwich”, the Warren Zevon memorial album where various artists ‘do’ songs of his, great people and good picks by the way, and I could even bear Adam Sandler’s version of “Werewolves”. I found Jordan’s song, “Studebaker”, which he found in Warren Z.’s trunk, especially excellent. He sounded to me like a cross between his dad and Jackson Browne in his youth. I know you’re a Warren-person too, and I despair, as do you, that that memorial anthology you contributed a story to will ever be forthcoming. I bought it mainly because I’m OCD about completing collections, and lucky I limit it to Zevon and Neil Young. Stephen only at the affordable level. It was hard to listen to this, as I’m OD’d on Warren’s death and the subsequent fooferah, a man who barely flew under the radar since he got clean and sober. I miss that the Warren Zevon thread on your ‘old’ BB never made the transfer. However, Rhino apparently dug up enough work from those now infamous trunks of Warren’s to be releasing a “Rarities” boxed set, rumor….but JUST rumor, is in January, and of course that will be all original material. The last of it. All things come to an end.