Elton John began his prolific career as a studio musician; on The Lockdown Sessions, he appears to have rediscovered his roots.
By Maanya Chandhock, Caitlin Chatterton, Julia Nycz
As its name makes clear, this album is a product of the pandemic. Taking full advantage of that, Elton has assembled his own kind of Band Aid that could rival Geldof’s, featuring everyone from Stevie Nicks and Glen Campbell to Young Thug and Dua Lipa.
In some places, this eclectic collaboration has its strengths: ‘Chosen Family’ with Rina Sawayama and ‘Nothing Else Matters’ with Miley Cyrus are clear standouts, alongside the version of ‘It’s a sin’ with Olly Alexander that debuted at this year’s Brits. These are all covers, though, and it’s the featured artists who shine rather than Elton himself.
In fact, Elton stays in his backseat for the vast majority of the album - you could enjoy Lil Nas X’s new track without even realising he was there. It’s not as though he has anything left to prove (the man already has thirty albums under his belt), but if you were hoping for an old-school album with Elton front and centre, this isn’t the one for you. Perhaps ‘Finish Line’, his collaboration with Stevie Wonder, gets closest to that.
We’ve all met issues with virtual communication over the last eighteen months; given that The Lockdown Sessions was produced online, some incoherence was inevitable. At times, though, it’s affronting. ‘The Pink Phantom’ with Gorillaz feels especially disjointed, and the Nicki Minaj x Elton John mashup on ‘Always Love You’ is as insane as the pitch suggests. Patched-together verses stumble awkwardly and take away from real moments of success, like the second half of ‘Stolen Car’ with Stevie Nicks.
The Lockdown Sessions is nowhere near being Elton’s best album. However, the tracklist is a fun series of experiments from a veteran who’s pretty much free to do what he wants. Some of the experiments work, some of them don’t. Some of them should probably have stayed in the drafts. But he’s still Sir Elton John, isn’t he, so who really cares?
Image courtesy of Caught In Joy on Unsplash. Image license can be found here.
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