Elton John - The Captain and the Kid
Track List :1. Postcards From Richard Nixon
2. Just Like Noah's Ark
3. Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC)
4. Tinderbox
5. And The House Fell Down
6. Blues Never Fade Away
7. Bridge
8. I Must Have Lost It On The Wind
9. Old 67
10. Captain And The Kid
There is a moment at the very beginning of The Captain & The Kid when it seems as if, against all reasonable expectations, the album may actually be exactly what it claims to be a success Elton John evocation of the glory days of the beginning In the mid-1970. There are 40 second piano part at the beginning of "Postcards From Richard Nixon", which brings to mind some of the best John's keyboard work - a combination of classic bar fills and panache, the sole emphasis on alternating notes in a rhythmic way mark Who its distinctive character piano as clearly as any other stylist instrumental rock of the era. The problem is that the work of piano soon gives way to a song, and, unfortunately, the songs on The Captain & The Kid stand in the way of John and Bernie Taupin, lyricist best of intentions.
Beyond the Disney films and musicals from Broadway and charity balls and Vegas homes and serenade dead royalty, Elton John and Bernie Taupin were once the main song in pop music duo. Their only real peers were Lennon & McCartney and Jagger & Richards, and I probably disqualify Lennon & McCartney based on the number of their best songs were written independently of each other. That is a very enviable success for everyone, and I had put their string early 70 hits along with any other person. They would not be in default of the comparison.
But only a fool would deliberately invite comparisons with them 30 years to remove it. Maybe in other areas, it might be plausible, writers and classical composers tend to improve with age, like fine wine, but pop-musicians and dancers, as a general rule, tend to diminish with time. There are always exceptions to find, but there are very few popular musicians who have been around for decades, many who can boast of producing work always as good or better than in their early years. For every Neil Young and Bob Dylan there are dozens of Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonders and David Bowies… and even Neil Young's mid-career peak seems to have given way to sentimentality flanges. Elton John has fallen as much as any of these artists as someone who has owned a copy of leather jackets, I would say that its valleys were probably as low or lower than any of its peers, but better than most of his peers, he also became very aware of how recent document had fallen from the top of its peak. Beginning with 2001's Songs from the West Coast, John has made a concerted effort to restore its relevance. As in similar recent attempts made by the Stones and David Bowie, there were moments that seemed to echo his first points, but also an overall lack of inspiration that simply could not be covered by a completely measured professionalism.
Listening to The Captain & The Kid, professional artists composure never flags. But in trying to reproduce the effect of their classic 1975 album Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John and Taupin have only succeeded in light shines on their own inadequacies. This seems harsh, I know, but an album as The Captain & The Kid inspires great frustration on the part of a fan for a long time. Obviously they want to repeat what once came so easily to them, it is clear that they are eager for the energy and motivation that once came so easily, but eager to have something and be it are two different things. Perhaps if the album had come without expectations of being a sequel to one of their finest achievements, it would have been easier to find housing, but no, it is an album rather mediocre, however you balance . The obvious comparisons Captain Fantastic simply crystallize our complaint.
One of the main problems is that John & Taupin unerringly competent so that I think they have lost the ability to distinguish between good and simple pedestrian. Almost every song on the album is built around a clear, easily accessible metaphor Taupin's lyrics painstakingly developed over a bog standard verse-chorus-bridge structure. "Tinderbox," for example, is clearly on John and Taupin's tumultuous relationship of collaboration:
Tinderbox, two spark can set it off,
Rub all around the clock,
Lately, we have been increasingly rolling that rock,
You and I together in a powder keg.
If I had to guess, I would say that both John and Taupin have gained a lot of bad habits of writing Broadway. I have never been a fan of showtunes, but compared to the average of the belle époque contemporary Broadway is a particularly witless. It seems more plausible that writing in the Andrew Lloyd Weber degraded mode narrative has hampered their ability to craft allusive language of all things, but the most glaring rag. "And… Fell Down the House" is almost as bad as "Tinderbox," the fight against John's infamous cocaine abuse with lines about "huffing and blowing" until the house falls.
Worse still are the benchmarks familiar music placed throughout the album, undoubtedly designed to stir audiences' memories, but more likely to inspire groans from the listener conscientious. "… And the House Fell Down "is built on the same synth-pop backbeat propelled the" I Still Standing. " The title of the album is even built on the same melody and movement, almost measure for measure, as the title song off Captain Fantastic. There is even another track on the city of New York, in the form of 'Would Have It Any Other Way ", and even if it is trying to evoke the hushed mystery of" Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters, "it 'there is absolutely no comparison between the two.
However, it should be noted that if this approach fails throughout the majority of the album, it succeeds admirably on "The Bridge". Properly it is a simple track, the simplest of the album, featuring John's voice and piano. Although not as obvious as the filching on "The Captain & The Kid", the song is built on a slightly modified version of the first significant riff of the career of John "Your Song". Although most of the album sways in the attempt to reach a melancholy, elegiac mood, this track works perfectly. The motif borrowed, rather than seem blatant grab for the listener's sympathy rather works exactly like a good sample: it evokes the past while allowing the musician to build it into something new. Texts, it is also the most simple piece of the album, a short narrative about the dangers of growing older and losing his inspiration:
And each of us,
Have to face that day,
Do you cross the bridge,
Or do you disappear?
And each of us,
That never came to play,
Have to cross the bridge,
Or get lost.
It is one of the rare moments in the album where you feel John might have a fighting chance to cross the bridge.
The rest of the album, while certainly never dipping below the level of sheer competence, is simply too comfortable to be any good. John plays with the same people he played with for decades, and although it might be fun for fans long to hear the guitar Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson battery, there is also no surprise that to be found anywhere at any point in the album. Each expert guitar riff, multitracked background "Oooo" and fill drum was calculated within an inch of his life. It does not help that the album one of the most sterile production overbearingly job I have ever heard. Everything is recorded with an optimum brightness and surface, and there is not an ounce of depth and mystery that is found in the pedestrian zone mix. What you hear is about what you get, and it is difficult to imagine multiple listenings discover a crowd in the sense of depth sound far from their sonically aventureux'70s work.
The album closer, "The Captain & The Kid," went so far as to proclaim "we can not go back and if you try to failure"-a nice ironic statement considering the immense feeling of nostalgia pervades the album. It is also a feeling that John himself has said before, but better, 1989's Sleeping With The Past (surprise, this album has actually aged quite well). I think the problems with Captain And The Kid can be reduced to the simple fact that John and Taupin have gotten too comfortable to be able to see their own shortcomings. If they really want to sound contemporary, once again producing music anywhere near as good as once they died, to try to compete with the likes of the Scissor Sisters, the Killers, Rufus Wainwright and Ray Lamontagne (four acts behalf of the album 'Dedication s), they need to shake off their complacency fatal. Not more nostalgia trips. Not more than working with the same musicians with whom they have worked for over thirty years. Not more than produce their own material. Step outside of themselves and do something difficult, the worst they can do is fall on their faces.
At this stage I would say Elton has much more to lose in the play safe than trying something new. They should find some of these young punks they were raving about, and in fact, you know, writing songs with them-John has recently written a song with the Scissor Sisters, but eloquent, he ended up on the new Scissor Sister's album. Maybe hire the Rapture to be his backing band, a song with the New Pornographers, hell, cut an album of duets with Cat Power. Working with a producer who actually has some ideas on how an album should sound, and I am not saying Rick Rubin. I think Jim O'Rourke would be perfect, or maybe even if Dave Fridmann has felt the desire to return to his roots rocking to the 11/17/70. Ashley Beedle has very recently on a remix of John's "Are You Ready For Love?" Why not make an entire album with dance as producers Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada, acts that John has long defended publicly? Time and money are not subject to Elton John, it can almost do what it wants to fuck: why not do something interesting? There is literally nothing he could do at this stage to shake his place in the history books, but at this rate it will be difficult to ever achieve anything of lasting greatness.
I can not tell you how much I would love to be proven wrong.
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