For a reformed character, Elton John's looking troubled. First he called media in Taiwan "vile pigs". Then he indulged in Madonna-baiting. Stranger still, having released a greatest hits album, he has gone country. The Weight of the World, with its rain-splattered intro and slide guitar, sets the reflective tone. Porch Swing in Tupelo sways gracefully; Turn the Lights Out When You Leave is pure, pithy Nashville. "You can take the car, it won't break my heart," he sings, dismissing love with a shrug.
It's an old-fashioned sound that casts him in a new light. But he can't quite leave his mind-numbing AOR behind. My Elusive Drug sounds like the worst of Billie Holiday and Robbie Williams; Answer in the Sky could have been written by an American televangelist. The emperor's new clothes look good on John - now he needs the confidence to wear them.
