4/5
Love Lockdown.
Dua Lipa. Young Thug. Nicki Minaj. Surfaces (make sure they are clean and sanitised). Charlie Puth (it's been a long time). Rina Sawayama. Gorillaz. 6Lack. Years & Years (it's felt like that, huh?). Miley Cyrus featuring WATT (I said WATT). Yo-Yo Ma. Robert Trujillo. Chad Smith of those Chili Peppers (they're Red Hot). SG Lewis. Brandi Carlile. Jimmie Allen. Lil Nas X. Eddie Vedder. Stevie Wonder. Stevie motherf#####g Nicks people. And the late great, Glen Campbell for the record. Whatever happened to social distancing? Relax, fun police! All of this is zoomed for your team-ups. This is 'The Lockdown Sessions', like the 'Genius Loves Company' of fellow piano man Ray Charles, or those Lady Gaga like duets with Tony Bennett. All finally unlocked, by who you ask? C'mon, you can tell who it is behind that mask! Thanks to those iconic bespectacled frames, a guess whose coming to dinner jacket and a bedazzled mask that this face cover collector now wants to add to his closet. The kind that Liberace would have been jealous of behind the piano if he was here with us today. A mask that also happens to not so subtly read, ELTON! Yeah, you guessed it...the bitch is back. Didn't he retire? Well from the live circuit like Tony Bennett that everyone seems to be taking a corona induced break from in quarantine. Not to name drop like the red rope guest-list of this album, but once I was working with R&B singer Tyrese (another "retirement" we hope doesn't take) in his temporary London apartment during the filming of the sixth 'Fast and Furious' when he went out with Vin Diesel and Diddy (not a name drop, I didn't meet them unfortunately). Leaving me to it (can I come?) he asked me if I wanted to listen to some music whilst I write. Pulling up his iTunes he asked me what I was into. Trying to sound like a mix of cool and not trying to be cool I came up with the first thing that came to mind. "Oh, you know all sorts. Elton John...you." You could literally see him double-take. I don't know what was more embarrassing, telling him that 'Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting' when you've got your 'Tiny Dancer's' on (for the record, there's nothing shameful about liking Sir Elton), or the fan boy fluff that followed. "Well my collection is quite extensive", he replied without missing a beat. The only thing more embarrassing was two years ago in a Tokyo Air B&B whilst making a living here I listened to his autobiography 'Me' narrated after his prologue and epilogue bookends by biopic 'Rocketman' himself, Taron Egerton. Suddenly all that could be heard from my room was, "and I told the guy, you can shove it right up your f#####g arse!"
But I digress. Rushing right out of the gates like he did on Taron Egerton's "other" film 'Kingsman-The Golden Circle', before high-kicking that guy hilariously like Saturday night really was all right. All whilst breaking the fourth-wall and looking at us on the big screen, Elton storms in with Dua Lipa and a 'Cold Heart' on the Pnau remix. All for this John's 32nd album and a classic, animated, stop-motion video as he refuses to shut the piano lid like John Legend given the 'Green Light' from Andre 3000. The groove is cool on this "human sign" reworking of one of Elton's greatest. This soaring single take us higher and back as the pair sing 'Rocketman' references, sacrificing to the stratosphere. Reimagined to new visions. Exactly what we need right now in lockdown even if "it's going to be a long, long time 'till touchdown brings me 'round again to find"...ourselves, or the rest of the wide reaching world. "I will always love you/Even when I say I don't/I will always see you/Even when my eyes are closed," John sings over more animation with Young Thug and Nicki Minaj for the snare like a Grammy Eminem 'Stan' on 'Always Love You'. The singer, songwriter, pianist and composer then really cleans up with Surfaces on 'Learn To Fly' like a Foo Fighter. Whilst 'After All' with Charlie Puth coming out of quarantine really sees you again. But it's Rina Sawayama's album of her same last name track 'Chosen Family' that really relates to more inspiration for your choosing. What the world needs now is lyrics like, "We don't need to be related to relate/We don't need to share genes or a surname/You are, you are My chosen, chosen family/So what if we don't look the same?/We been going through the same thing/Yeah, you are, you are/My chosen, chosen family." Elton also curates for this collection the Gorillaz song 'The Pink Panther' with John playing Jacques Clouseau from 'Season One' of their 'Song Machine' for these 'Strange Timez' that like Damon Alban all feel like a Blur.
Years and Years keep the clocks and the calendar ticking and turning over for the remodel of 'It's A Sin', Dressed up for the stage of theatre, darling, like fur and peacock feathers. Or the time John stepped on top of his piano in Dodger stadium, rocking a star spangled Los Angeles uniform only made for Hollywood and knocked it out the park with a Louisville slugger. The 'Plastic Hearts' of Miley Cyrus like a wrecking ball also swing into the desert with WATT (don't make me say it again), Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo and Will Ferr...I mean Chad Smith because right now, 'Nothing Else Matters' on this classic compilation. It's just the 'Simple Things' like the country classic with rising star Brandi Carlile. Or country superstar Lil Nas X for the rapper's long awaited 'One For Me'. All before Jimmie Allen helps to show there's 'Beauty In The Bones' like "Every root turns into branches/Every question leads to answers/Even if the seed ain’t fully grown/There’s beauty in the bones/Just a drop can start a riptide/Just a word can change a whole life/Even if this story ain’t been wrote/There’s beauty in the bones". And then John and Peal Jam's Eddie Vedder keep rocking and rolling on an 'E-Ticket, even if the only way we can really travel now is digitally or through the imagination as music's escape takes us there. "You, oh you, are still a beauty to behold/You been my muse every story that I told," Elton evokes with the loving of his lasting lyrics next to another man no stranger to the piano. You may know him, his name is Stevie Wonder. And 'Finish Line' is a marvel like Cap of 'Just Good Friends' with MJ proportions, as this collection almost reaches it's closure conclusion. Oh, that harmonica. 'Stolen Car' with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks with another classic tango in the night sounds "a little bit funny" as it hands us the keys and takes us on home. 'I'm Not Gonna Miss You' he sings with the late legend Glen Campbell ("I'm still here, but yet I'm gone" *sniffs*) for another country classic in closing. But we really will this one and this legend if roses really get thrown (along with my underpants) to Elton John's piano soon. Now John may have had to say so long (for now) to his 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' swan song tour in 2020 due to COVID-19, but with 'The Lockdown Sessions', Elton is far from waving goodbye to the end of his rainbow. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) Feat. Dua Lipa', 'Chosen Family (Rina Sawayama Feat. Elton John), 'Finish Line (Feat. Stevie Wonder).'
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