| Blue Moves |  | Artist: Elton John
Label: Phantom Sound & Visi
Category: Music
This item is no longer available
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 836663
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
UPC: 766482482023
EAN: 0766482482023
ASIN: B00000E248
Release Date: November 21, 1996
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Album Description
Excluded from Polygram U.S.'s recent digitallyremastered Elton catalog reissues, this is his 1976 studioalbum that reached #3 in the U.S. album charts and featuresthe top 10 smash 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word' andthe top 30 hit 'Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!)'. Other16 tracks: 'Your Starter For', 'Tonight', 'One Horse Town','Chameleon', 'Boogie Pilgrim', 'Cage The Songbird', 'CrazyWater', 'Shoulder Holster', 'Out Of The Blue', 'Between 17 &20', 'The Wide Eyed & Laughing', 'Someone's Final Song', 'IfThere's A God In Heaven', 'Idol', 'Where's The Shoorah?' + 1
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| Customer Reviews:
Where did you go Elton John? October 18, 2006
Lonnie E. Holder (Columbus, Indiana, United States)
There are parts of this album that presage the music that Elton John would create decades later. However, in 1976 much of the music on this album was so different from the awesome pop that he had been creating that this music turned fans off. In retrospect, Elton was going through changes that reflected in the music of this double album set, and while some of the music has survived the test of time, much has not.
The album opens with "Your Starter For," a light instrumental that is best classed as easy listening. This instrumental serves as an introduction for "Tonight," which draws upon the neoclassical musical style used in "Madman Across the Water." If you are a classical and pop music fan, you may appreciate this song, which has an extended instrumental introduction. The London Symphony Orchestra is featured in this song, which has light-weight lyrics that become almost filler to the stronger music.
The third song, "One Horse Town," struggles to be something, but has a hard time getting there. The song has a rock beat, but the style shifts in and out of being a pop instrumental this is out of synchronization with the rock beat and there is a strange synthesizer sound effect that dates the song as pre-disco era pop. This song just does not work for me.
"Chameleon" almost works. Some of the style is similar to that of "Captain Fantastic." This song probably would have worked better had Elton smoothed out some of the transitions. Instead, there are a few places where the lyrics sound forced to match the music; still, an acceptable song.
"Boogie Pilgrim" is a throwaway song. The song could have been eliminated from the CD and no one would have noticed and maybe the CD would have been better.
"Cage the Songbird" is classic Elton. The style dates back to Elton's early albums. Had the entire CD been music like this it would have gone to #1 and been a great album. A flavor of "Rock of the Westies" can be found in "Crazy Water." The beat and the keyboards remind me of that album. This song is, while lower than Elton's standards of the time, acceptable.
The last selection of the first disk, "Shoulder Holster," has much in common with the music of "Yellow Brick Road," particularly the second album. This song is another good song with a classic Elton style.
The second CD opens with "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word." This song was released as a single with a fair measure of success, and is collected in a couple of places. The song is okay, though not one of my favorites because it feels to me that in some places the words were being stuffed in to fit the music.
"Out of the Blue" is an instrumental that fits the tone and style of the opening instrumental on the first side. Enough said. While "Between Seventeen and Twenty" is less than inspired, it is solid music and could fit in on several of Elton's earlier albums, particularly "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player."
There are some great harmonies on "The Wide-Eyed and Laughing." Additionally, this song features a sitar with Davey Johnstone performing. I like the sitar as a support instrument. This song is one of the best in this two-CD set. My only complaint with this song is James Newton-Howard's weird and distracting synthesizer noises. This song is followed by another good song, "Someone's Final Song." Once again the harmonies are excellent and the pace and style are natural and fit well. The next song continues the quality of the previous two. "Shoorah" has a silly title to me, but only because I have no idea what it means. The music, on the other hand, is a more mature version of the style used on "Madman." Again the harmonies and piano create a simple, effective musical style that is what Elton does best.
"If There's a God in Heaven" is another good song, this one in the style of "Philadelphia Freedom" with a stronger blues style. In this song Elton makes good use of his voice and the solid pop-rock is well done with no hint of the synthesizer nonsense that seems to intrude in some of the other faster paced songs on this CD.
When "Idol" first starts it is easy to get confused because Elton sings this in the style of a classic lounge singer. While the style is different from Elton's usual style, it works; another well done song.
"Theme from a Non-Existent TV Series," another instrumental, follows. The style of this short instrumental fits with the earlier instrumentals, but synthesizers are more predominant.
The last song on the CD is "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)," which bears some resemblance to the music of "Rock of the Westies." However, since the song breaks little in the way of new ground for Elton, it feels like a throwaway song. The song is very fast with a lot of repetition that becomes monotonous and annoying after just a few repeats of "Bite your lip, get up, get up and dance, dance, dance."
Elton John could have made a great album from the music "Blue Moves" contains. Doing so would have required editing to eliminate the weaker tracks, making some minor changes to a couple of the remaining tracks, and then putting the remaining tracks in an order where the tracks supported each other. Instead, these songs of many disparate styles were all thrown together and the result is an album that is difficult to listen to. Looking back three decades it appears that Elton's musical vision was unfocused on this album, and he seemed to be experimenting and putting the results into the mix regardless of how they fit. In spite of the good moments, this album is an example of how not to make an album.
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