Elton John - The Fox
#188
May 20 1981
Elton John
The Fox
Genre: Elton John
1.75 out of 5
I’ve seen Elton John in concert. There was absolutely no reason for this except that the girl I was dating really wanted to see the Elton John/Billy Joel tour and I was wooing.
Elton was blown off the stage by Billy who just seemed to be having a good time.
I also sat through that Elton biopic from last year. You know what? Oh, it’s awful, but it also has a couple great moments of Ken Russell inspired surrealism in a musical.
And there was a point where I almost went ahead with a complete Elton retrospective and I would have done it but we were moving and I just got lost in that experience. But I was completely mesmerized by just how great some of those early albums were.
This is not one of those. This is 21 at 33 John. This is the middle of his tailspin of mediocrity. I’m not sure he really ever recovers. But, he keeps plodding on.
What does it say that the most engaging track is not written by John? It’s by Jean-Paul Dreau and Gary Osborne (who co-wrote most of this record with John). And while, “Nobody Wins” is probably the best song here, it’s the production that saves it not the song writing.
The first part of “Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe” is lovely, though. And it makes me wonder, did John ever do an instrumental classical album? You don’t really need to answer unless it’s really good. Which this album is not. He gets close to, say, “The Bitch is Back” on “Heels of the Wind” but that’s just pilfering his own work.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-fox-remastered/1440661861
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