Orange County Register, September 21, 2013: Difference between revisions
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Such fanciful are days are long gone – he didn't come marching into USC's Bovard Auditorium Monday night for an intimate showcase and interview decked out in Trojan finery. Yet his style is never without sparkle, and there's more elegance to how Elton at 66 reasserts himself in the public eye, as he is once again with the release next week of his impressive (if sometimes patience-demanding) 31st studio album, ''The Diving Board''. | Such fanciful are days are long gone – he didn't come marching into USC's Bovard Auditorium Monday night for an intimate showcase and interview decked out in Trojan finery. Yet his style is never without sparkle, and there's more elegance to how Elton at 66 reasserts himself in the public eye, as he is once again with the release next week of his impressive (if sometimes patience-demanding) 31st studio album, ''The Diving Board''. | ||
His sobered approach has been in place more or less since his once-rocky career rebounded in the '80s with hits like "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "I'm Still Standing" and that classy look-back live album with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. What followed is an ongoing second act filled with peaks: a Tony and an Oscar for The Lion King to add to six Grammys, Hall of Fame membership, untold millions from ceaseless touring and an intermittent but always sold-out Las Vegas residency. | His sobered approach has been in place more or less since his once-rocky career rebounded in the '80s with hits like "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "I'm Still Standing" and that classy look-back live album with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. What followed is an ongoing second act filled with peaks: a Tony and an Oscar for ''The Lion King'' to add to six Grammys, Hall of Fame membership, untold millions from ceaseless touring and an intermittent but always sold-out Las Vegas residency. | ||
But what has proved elusive amid those highlights is satisfying success for new material, the same pursuit that vexes virtually all of his peers. | But what has proved elusive amid those highlights is satisfying success for new material, the same pursuit that vexes virtually all of his peers. | ||
It hasn't been for lack of trying. Five Elton John records have emerged in the past dozen years, from 2001's comeback-initializing Songs from the West Coast to this new ''Diving Board'', the best he's made since then. Each one, including 2010's memorable Leon Russell collaboration The Union, has been ushered in as a special event, hyped to varying degrees as a return to basics like never before. | It hasn't been for lack of trying. Five Elton John records have emerged in the past dozen years, from 2001's comeback-initializing Songs from the West Coast to this new ''Diving Board'', the best he's made since then. Each one, including 2010's memorable Leon Russell collaboration ''The Union'', has been ushered in as a special event, hyped to varying degrees as a return to basics like never before. | ||
Those expectations haven't always been met, despite the music being consistently superior to most anything he's cut since the late '70s. He pushed too hard to put across the Southern-fried Peachtree Road in 2004, for instance, going so far as to open a leg of arena shows by playing almost all of it before delving into the classic stuff. It was a brave but ill-advised move that left audiences baffled or, worse, vocally upset. | Those expectations haven't always been met, despite the music being consistently superior to most anything he's cut since the late '70s. He pushed too hard to put across the Southern-fried ''Peachtree Road'' in 2004, for instance, going so far as to open a leg of arena shows by playing almost all of it before delving into the classic stuff. It was a brave but ill-advised move that left audiences baffled or, worse, vocally upset. | ||
Two years later, he issued The Captain & the Kid, a sequel to one of his biggest-selling works, 1975's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. It looked like a can't-miss winner on paper, and got big talk from its composer, who boasted (not entirely incorrectly) that it was among his and longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin's greatest achievements. It stiffed, his label all but abandoned it, and Elton grew deeply despondent. | Two years later, he issued The Captain & the Kid, a sequel to one of his biggest-selling works, 1975's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. It looked like a can't-miss winner on paper, and got big talk from its composer, who boasted (not entirely incorrectly) that it was among his and longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin's greatest achievements. It stiffed, his label all but abandoned it, and Elton grew deeply despondent. | ||
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Revision as of 02:58, 5 January 2014
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