Elton John kick

Confession time: I've been on an Elton John kick for the past couple months. I even joined the BMG music club so I could load up on all his classic albums. His new one Peachtree Road is very good, on a par with its predecessor Songs from the West Coast. Both albums signal a return to his 70's heyday. The man continues to sing as if his life hung on every word, and although Bernie Taupin's lyrics may be opaque at times (they're not nearly as obscure as I used to think they were), Elton invests them with profundity, and Taupin frequently demonstrates a real sense of what a lyric can achieve in terms of poetry and mood. When Elton sings "someone saved my life tonight, sugar bear", who knows what precisely is being alluded to, but the way he sings it so strong and true, it feels like it makes perfect sense, and that's what matters in pop: the feel, the phrase, the truth of the moment. Sure there are many miscues along the way to be pointed out with accusatory stabs of the index finger: "Island Girl" for one, is abominably bad. The excessive showmanship of glitz and glasses was something I never got into either. But c'mon, we're talking about exceptional flaws that prove the rule. Steeping myself in his best work again, I realize how much his presence on the radio had blended with my thoughtstreams growing up; Elton was always in the air, and rediscovering his songs is like tapping into a part of yourself that's been covered with soot all these years.