plorentz's Full Review: Peachtree Road by Elton John
I was too young to experience the most glorious days of Elton John’s recording career firsthand. But, long before I knew who he was, or what he looked like, I knew all the words to “Philadelphia Freedom” and “Your Song”. I remember singing the chorus of “Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)”, and making up all my own oh-so-dramatic fade-out ad-libs while bumming around the fire station where my dad was a volunteer fireman. I remember hiding out in the walk-in dairy refrigerator in the stock room of the grocery store where I had my first job, attempting to shirk my grocery-bagging duties in order to really listen to “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” playing on the Muzak.
I always found myself getting lost in his songs. The romantic melodies, the sharp storytelling in the lyrics, and of course, the way he sang them all. More than any of the other, prettier artists out there, Elton John was a singer I always wanted to be.
And despite the tabloid dramas, despite the Eminem duets and the Madonna feuds, the prima donna, drama queen reputation and canceled concert appearances, despite the Las Vegas show, despite “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, and the obligatory South Park skewering, Elton John can still sing a song in a way that makes me forget where I am at the moment I hear it. I remember seeing the video of “I Want Love”, from his 2001 album Songs from the West Coast, featuring a battleworn Robert Downey Jr. lip-syncing to one of Elton’s rawest vocal performances - words so declarative, so full of yearning and self-condemnation, they were almost painful to hear: A man like me is dead in places other men feel liberated, he sang, and the sheer brutal observation in that line still feels like a stab wound when I hear it.
When I found out about the impending release of Elton John’s newest record Peachtree Road, I dug out that last CD and listened to “I Want Love” for the first time in at least a year. And I listened to it again. And then I listened to it again. And I put in the car to listen to on my way to the grocery store, and when I got the store, I sat in my car until it was over, singing along with it, singing to myself in my rear view mirror, watching my face transform into that of the man singing, and by the time I got home, I had the voice of a guy a quarter century older than myself.
It’s easy to laugh at Elton John, but when he really nails a song; at that very moment when he achieves that perfect combination of melody, verse and theatre, there is truly no voice on Earth more powerful than his. And even on his worst albums, he always manages to hit that spot at least once or twice. But, despite the increasing punchline-worthiness of his extramusical life, he’s been riding an under-the-radar artistic renaissance on his last few albums, each of which – since 1995’s Made In England - has improved upon the last.
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His latest record continues that trend, once again finding the singer returning to the soulful, southern-fried styles of early classics like Tumbleweed Connection and Honky Chateau. Like those records, Peachtree Road is a deliberately American (and in this case, specifically Southern American) sounding record. This is not a country album, but there is country music here. This is not a Memphis soul record, but there are hints of Memphis throughout.
This is a record that finds Elton breathing new life into all the old Elton John song archetypes from the “Bitch Is Back”-style rocker (see “They Call Her The Cat”), to the “Border Song” gospel ballad (see “Porch Swing in Tupelo”), to “Country Comfort” twang (see “Turn the Lights Out When You Leave”), to the heart-on-sleeve “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” showstopper (see “I Can’t Keep This From You”) and, of course, the made-for-charity-benefit inspirational number (see just about everything else).
But most of all, this is an album about living on the sunny side – it’s about contentment and hope and finding true love in the strangest of places. Where Songs from the West Coast was one of Elton’s darkest, most internal, and most intimate records ever, Peachtree Road is easily his most optimistic, his most broadly outward-looking, his least sarcastic and cynical. And I think it’s telling, for an artist whose work has always been so inseparable from his image, that there’s not a single picture of the man in this package at all. Instead, we have rustic pictures of rural roads, a saddle hanging over a rusted wire fence, railroad crossings.
This is a “values” record. Named after a road in Atlanta. With lots of hot (gay) pink in the booklet.
And if the faith-based lyrics and Disney-ready melody of lead single “Answer In The Sky” feels a little Republican National Convention-ish, its easy warmth ultimately rings true and even a little (errm… trying not to gag here) inspirational.
Elsewhere, Elton takes a look around and decides that the ugly sentiments of “I Want Love” be damned, he’s got a heck of a lot to be happy about. In “Weight of the World”, he ponders the blessing that is middle-aged rock-stardom while mundanely shooing away flies in his kitchen. In “All That I’m Allowed”, the album’s most immediate song, he is emphatic and effusive in his gratitude (“and I’m thankful… Thankful… I’m thankful… So thankful… I’m thankful…”) to the Great Whatever for all he’s got. It’s almost damned un-American in its frightening lack of commercial yearning, and it is positively subversive in setting that message to one of his most commercially appealing tunes.
And songs like the delightfully happy-to-see-you-go twangfest “Turn the Lights Out When You Leave”, and the I-can’t-see-me-lovin’-nobody-but-you sweetness of high-school-prom slowdance “Freaks In Love” (“Me and you- we’re damaged goods”) prove that – tabloid headlines notwithstanding - the old queen hasn’t lost her sense of humor yet.
But maybe the best thing about Peachtree Road is its uncharacteristic lack of filler. Aside from the torchy, too-heavy-on-the-molasses “My Elusive Drug”, there’s nothing here that really begs to be skipped. In fact, there are an inordinate number of songs here that beg to be repeated. And that’s something that none of even the best of Elton’s most recent albums can boast. On Peachtree Road, Elton finally re-claims – in a big way – that elusive balance between honest, organic songwriting and an easy-on-the-ears adult contemporary sound. It’s sweet, but not sugary, and commercial, but not bland. It’s uncommonly “happy”, but it’s a deeply felt happiness that informs this music. In short, it’s the best thing he’s released in twenty years, and it wants to be in your CD collection… right now.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
“Peachtree Road” by Elton John
Rocket / Universal Records
Released 11/9/04
Produced by Elton John (for the first time, ever!)
52 min.
SONGS: Weight of the World – Porch Swing in Tupelo – Answer in the Sky – Turn the Lights Out When You Leave – My Elusive Drug – They Call Her the Cat – Freaks in Love – All That I’m Allowed – I Stop and I Breathe – Too Many Tears – It’s Getting Dark in Here – I Can’t Keep This From You
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