Madman Across the Water

She just died? Wow. I didn't know that. You're telling me now for the first time. She led an amazing life. What else can you say? She was an amazing woman. Whether you agreed or not, she was an amazing woman who led an amazing life. I'm actually saddened to hear that. I am sadden to hear that. Thank you very much.

I really know only the hits of Elton John, but I like them all moderately well. They do sound pretty same-y to me though. Pretty impressive that he managed to sound basically the same for so long!

Highlights: 'Tiny Dancer' (with thanks for giving us a classic mondegreen example), 'All the Nasties'

Not the best John. Tiny Dancer is a jam but the rest was a little hohum. 2.5/5

Levon is such an amazing song - first heard it when Taylor Hicks won American Idol and was obsessed

This was good. Tiny Dancer and Levon are all timers for sure. The rest of the songs are all pretty solid, but except Indian Sunset, that one wasn’t great.

Some good tunes, and a lot that didn't really hit the spot. Nothing I actively disliked though.

I really enjoyed this album; it was a pleasant listen with some great lyrics and melodies. It will be listened to again.

I felt it lacked a couple of killer hits for it to be anything more than a 3/5

Favourite song: Tiny Dancer is a belter.
Least favourite: "All the nasties" was a bit naff
Album artwork: Cool cover.

I’m at a 5.

It was well worth the 387-day break between “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and this album; these are the only two Elton John albums on the list, and I feel like I need to listen to the man’s whole discography after this one. This is not as fun (and thankfully not as long) as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t feel as impactful in some fashion.

Tiny Dancer is the obvious standout here, but I’ve never heard the rest of the songs on this album – I loved almost every single one of them, save for “Goodbye”, which, while haunting & a good track, feels TOO depressingly sad as the closer, even for an album that’s generally steeped in sad-ish songs. What strikes me the most about this album is how not poppy it is; I wrote this down while listening to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (though I didn’t include it on the website at the time), but whenever I think of Elton John, I’m expecting a bunch of songs similar to stuff like I’m Still Standing or Don’t Go Breaking My Heart; the big poppy hits that he’s kind of nestled into for the last decade, at least whenever he does collaborations. That diminishes what kind of artist Elton John is though, and I think this album proves that at a higher level than Goodbye Yellow Brick Road did, in terms of the general emotional impact relative to each song.

Granted, that’s a whole year of “only remembering the stuff I really, really liked off of that album” striking my brain, but GYBR (does anyone type this??) is a relatively upbeat album compared to this one; this is where Bernie Taupin & Elton John get to flex their storytelling ability, whether it’s in Taupin’s lyrics, or Elton’s vocals, or in the orchestration that gives each song a cinematic flourish that I’m just a sucker for. I’d be remiss to not acknowledge the problematic nature of “Indian Sunset”, which I find to honestly be the biggest & brightest example of that cinematic flair, arguably moreso than Tiny Dancer for me. Inherently, the biggest red flag in the song is the use of the term “red man” in referring to the Native Americans, but the other red flag is simply letting two white British men decide to write a song with historical inaccuracies & stereotypes about the Oklahoma Territory, the Trail of Tears, and that general time period. With that said, I can’t help but feel like the two truly had the best of intentions when writing the track, and I think the general feel of the imagery & the story they’re trying to tell via the vocals & orchestration creates the emotional impact they’re going for, and hopefully gets the point across of “hey, the colonization and everything really fucking sucked, actually”.

Ultimately, I think it’s just a fabulous album, and picking between this and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a coin flip – they’re both doing different things, and I can’t truly compare them directly to each other. It should come as no surprise that this is a 5 – I’m really sad that there’s not more Elton John on the list, but hopefully he’ll have a surprise feature or two somewhere along the next… oh, 607 or so albums. Surely, there’s at least one? Either way, I owe it to myself to listen to the rest of his 70s stuff at the very least.

Such a great album, first in a series of incredible stuff from one of the best. Elton’s ability to sing on top of the complex piano parts he carries always impresses me.

Tiny Dancer is perhaps my least favorite of Elton John's big hits. It's melodramatic, cheesy, and feels like a gross, sloppy kiss from a relative you've met twice. It just is too ballad-y for my blood. So, it doesn't surprise me all too much that this album does absolutely nothing for me, but, man, what a slog. I don't care for Elton John wanting to be held, sure, but I especially don't want to hear him sing like he is a Native American going through it, that's a tricky topic on all sorts of levels, and a white, British guy is not doing the topic any favors. It just felt like every song wanted me to ask "What am I doing here?" and even when the album tried to sound better, it was too little too late. I have always seen Elton as a hits guy, and this album with no (IMO) good hits means I'm just listening to melodrama for the sake of melodrama, and it's kind of obnoxious. I'll take Billy Joel for my piano rock needs, I suppose.

Elton is a songs guy for me, but this is definitely one of his finest records. "Indian Sunset" my favorite album cut.

4/5

wow leading off with Tiny Dancer. Razor Face? the title track is good. They are all these really grand dramatic songs, which, idk sort of loses me because they all get to the same sorts of places.

Never listened to this one before, obviously I did know Tiny Dancer well though. Really enjoyed it, although not as much as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The title track and Indian Sunset were real highlights, with the later being a pleasantly nostalgic reminder of Getto Gospel being absolutely everywhere when I was like 14.

I always thought that this was one of Elton’s least well regarded albums and his least personal favorite. But it’s got Tiny Dancer on it, so I guess it goes on the list. I was surprised to see this on here, and surprised it’s so highly rated.

That being said, this was fine. Tony Dancer and a bunch of unremarkable songs that were all threes.

I got whiplash going from Pantera to Elton John.
Tiny Dancer is a great opener, but I'm not sure the rest measures up to it. I like Elton, but this album didn't quite do it for me. Rotten peaches convinced me Elton can sing about anything.

Man I love me some early Elton John, when his bluesy piano playing was at the forefront. This one is a little bit country. The album that he released right after this one, Honky Chateau, is my favorite EJ album but didn’t make this list.
Listening to this era of Elton always makes me SO upset about the Disney crap he did later on. Pre-1976 Elton John is one masterpiece after another.

Good music, but unfortunately boring.

Got this on the day of the US election where Trump won. Since Elton is British I think that makes sense. 3.56.

Every song is fantastic, and the hits are hits for a reason. Maybe "Indian Sunset" is a well written metaphor. Thinking of it that way helps me listen to it, otherwise it kind of fails. And that would make it the single sour thing on the album. Because this is so... beautiful. I just don't have another word that fits. For me Elton's early stuff is brilliant in every way, touches me, pulls my attention and keeps me in it beginning to end.

The background vox on this are worth 5 stars alone. I love the sincerity, reaching for Americana in the way all those British blues guys did. THis is successful, unlike so much - even the Stones are treating the country and bluegrass styles like it's a posh joke. Elton makes it his own. It's good music, well recorded, executed perfectly, with far-reaching lyrics sung by one of the greatest.

This album is carried by tiny dancer, but to be honest I think that’s enough for this to make the list.