1995.

We had just purchased our first PC: a sturdy Hewlett-Packard Multimedia 6100 (with an eye-popping 24K memory). To my utter delight, I could listen to CD's on this wonderful 'chine while I went through the Windows 3.1 tutorials.

My daughter gave me Elton John's MADE IN ENGLAND, which I listened to--endlessly--as I played with my new toy.

I became more enamored with the music than the PC. Having always been an Elton John fan, I was overwhelmed by the overall quality of this album. The tracks were clean, crisp, dynamic, powerful, haunting--compelling songs, including "Believe," "House," and the wonderful "Made in England."

Through the infinite peaks and valleys of Elton John's career, MADE IN ENGLAND is perhaps the best effort from this talented artist (and his partner in crime, Bernie Taupin). This is good stuff, and you don't have to buy a new PC to appreciate it.
--D. Mikels


just when you thought he was in a coma   June 17, 2000
Chris Cormier (canada)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I must say I was surprised at the quality of this album. While he does usually put one good song per album (couldn't even find one on "The One"), on this album, every single song is EXCELLENT. If you liked Madman or Yellow Brick Road, this is pretty well along the same lines with some new production tricks, like in "Blessed" and "Latitude", while "Lie", "Pain", and the title track rock as good as anything he's done in twenty years. The lyrics are miles above average, the production is superb, his singing is from the heart for a change, and best of all, the songs themselves are worthy quality to be on an elton john album. Don't make the mistake of lumping this with his latter day phil-collinish contractual obligations, this proves the man can still rock with the best of them.


How in the world did this one slip by me?!   January 7, 2007
I. Gross Georg (Edmond, Oklahoma USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

As a 35-year fan of Sir Elton John, I thought I'd heard all of them. I had never heard this CD before late 2005! It's extraordinary!

The album was produced by Greg Penny, who I must say I'm thoroughly unfamiliar with, but I have to applaud him. George Martin conducted the strings and orchestra for "Latitude", a bluegrass beauty that has me wanting to waltz every time I hear it! He was behind the Beatles' better work, and he's a man who obviously appreciates orchestration like I do. I'm definitely a sucker for a French horn in a song. Young people believe strings don't belong in popular music; that's unfortunate and it's their loss.

The great Paul Buckmaster conducted the London Session Orchestra on the songs "Believe", "House", "Cold", and the exquisite Celtic masterpiece, "Belfast", a song that absolutely brings tears to my eyes for its sheer beauty; it's outstanding. "Believe" was re-introduced to me through YouTube; it's a gorgeous work, with a powerful message and a great music video that went with it that features the Twin Towers in it and is done in black and white. Just gorgeous.

The title track is a hoot! In this homage to his birthplace Taupin writes, and Sir Elton sings: "you can still say 'homo' and everybody laughs!" And I found out that a blue Cortina is a car! "House" sounds as if it were written for or by John Lennon; this doesn't surprise me at all. I love "Pain"; it's an excellent uptempo rocker, and the lyrics definitely convey a sense of the pervasiveness of pain! "Please" has a rockabilly/Beach Boys feel to it that's very pleasant. I hear the organ by Paul Carrack on "Man", and it makes me think of the late Billy Preston. There's really not a bad song on the album. I don't think that's always been the case with his recordings of the 90s.

Can I talk about Sir Elton's musicianship? His powerful piano work in the song "Lies" is second-to-none, as it is throughout the album. Davy's guitar work is fabulous, and he obviously emulates the late George Harrison at times. I love listening to him. Sadly, Dee's been gone a while, but I wonder why Nigel wasn't a part of this recording? Charlie and Bob are admirable stand-ins, none the less.

Finally, reading Bernie Taupin's lyrics are a very good reason to forego downloading this once, at least until the booklet is available by download also.

Seems like I do remember the song "Blessed", but for some reason I never made the connection to this album. It's typical that the song they chose for the single wasn't the best choice. It's very mellow with a sweet sentiment, though, not the dance number I would have thought would have been radio-worthy. I have to keep in mind that there's a whole generation of people who don't realize that Elton John is first and foremost a piano man/saloon singer! Maybe the record company felt this would be the safest song to release, since that generation knows him primarily as a balladeer!

This album put me in mind to the old days when I would see the song titles on an Elton John record and try to imagine what the songs would be like while I saved up to buy it. I used a lot of allowance money on his records back in the day, and at 10 cents a week I sometimes had a long wait. If this one had been released in the 70s when I was a teen, and with its non-electronica, live instrument sound it easily could have, this would have been well worth the wait! It's the sound that made this black teenager stare at the stereo with open-mouthed wonder in 1972. Listening to strings in my music was no surprise to me, I grew up with the Motown sound and it was as common as copper pennies back then. I miss orchestration in today's music as much as I miss melody. For me, Elton John's "Made in England" album represents everything that's missing in today's popular music.

Made in England was a gift from Sir Elton John that I'm sorry about not remembering when it was a brand new recording in 1995. But I've got it now, drawn by the compelling CD cover shot by Greg Gorman of Sir Elton at his handsome best, and I'm sharing it with everybody I know who still appreciates good music, good vocals, good arrangements, and good songwriting. It's a classic.