Description
Elton John – The Diving Board / Mercury Audio CD 2013 / 3743912
UPC 00602537439126
Product Details:
The Diving Board is the twenty-ninth studio album by British singer-songwriter Elton John.[2] It is the second of his studio releases since 1979's Victim of Love without any of his regular band members.[3][4] The album was released in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2013, and debuted at No. 3 on the UK album chart, his highest-charting studio album in that country since 2001's Songs from the West Coast, and at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. It is also his highest-charting solo album in the United States since Blue Moves in 1976. However, after just eight weeks the album fell off the charts completely.
The album's premiere single, "Home Again", was released on 24 June 2013, the same day the album became available for pre-order. On 28 August 2013, a video for "Mexican Vacation (Kids in the Candlelight)" was released on YouTube.
Editorial Review:
So the story goes like this. Inspired by their work on the Leon Russell duet album The Union, producer T-Bone Burnett encouraged Elton John to return to making albums like he used to in the old days for 2013's The Diving Board, harking back to the days when he wrote quickly and recorded with little more than a rhythm section. This all sounds like a major shift in aesthetic for John, but Elton has been on a decade-long quest to tap into that old magic, beginning his voyage into the past with 2001's Songs from the West Coast and getting progressively elliptical with each subsequent release. The Diving Board does indeed evoke ghosts of Elton past but it never suggests the hits. It's an album consisting almost entirely of songs that riff on "Sixty Years On" and "Rotten Peaches" -- long, languid ballads or open-ended blues-rockers where atmosphere trumps hooks. Occasionally, Elton musters up elongated melodies that eventually catch hold, but The Diving Board isn't a collection of finely sculpted pop; it's a set of song poems and ballads, all placing emphasis on mood, not immediacy. This is an exceptional idea in theory; in practice it is ever so slightly formless, floating whenever it should be taking root. There are moments where the tempo gets ever so slightly sprightly -- "Take This Dirty Water" has a dirty gospel shuffle reminiscent of a toned-down "Take Me to the Pilot," "The Ballad of Blind Tom" is faithful to the spirit of Tumbleweed Connection, "Mexican Vacation (Kids in the Candlelight)" not only rocks but has a welcome gust of tastelessness -- but that only emphasizes just how ponderous the rest of the record is. There is much that is admirable about The Diving Board -- the feel is spacious and haunting, the ambition is commendable -- but the emphasis on tone over song means it leaves only wistful wisps of melancholia behind with the actual songs seeming like faded, distant memories.
Tracklist:
| 1 | Oceans Away | |
| 2 | Oscar Wilde Gets Out | |
| 3 | A Town Called Jubilee | |
| 4 | The Ballad Of Blind Tom | |
| 5 | Dream # 1 | |
| 6 | My Quicksand | |
| 7 | Can't Stay Alone Tonight | |
| 8 | Voyeur | |
| 9 | Home Again | |
| 10 | Take This Dirty Water | |
| 11 | Dream # 2 | |
| 12 |
The New Fever Waltz | |
| 13 | Mexican Vacation (Kids In The Candlelight) | |
| 14 | Dream # 3 | |
| 15 | The Diving Board |
More Details:
- Art Direction – Mat Maitland
- Backing Vocals – Alvin Chea, Bill Cantos, Carmel Echols, Judith Hill, Louis Price, Perry Morgan
- Baritone Saxophone – George Bohanon
- Bass – Raphael Saadiq
- Cello – Luka Sulic, Stjepan Hauser
- Drums – Jay Bellerose
- Engineer – Chris Owens (2), Jeff Gartenbaum, Vanessa Parr
- Flugelhorn – Chuck Findley, Darrell Leonard
- Guitar – Doyle Bramhall II
- Keyboards – Keefus Ciancia
- Lead Vocals – Elton John
- Mastered By – Gavin Lurssen
- Mixed By – Chris Owens (2), Jason Wormer, Zachary Dawes
- Organ – Larry Goldings
- Photography By – Tim Barber
- Piano – Elton John
- Producer – T Bone Burnett
- Recorded By – Jason Wormer
- Tambourine – Jack Ashford
- Trombone – Bruce Fowler (3)
- Tuba – William Roper
- Written-By – Bernie Taupin, Elton John
About Elton John:
Sir Elton Hercules John CH CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967 on more than 30 albums, John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits in the UK Singles Chart and US Billboard Hot 100, including seven number ones in the UK and nine in the US, as well as seven consecutive number-one albums in the US. His tribute single "Candle in the Wind 1997", rewritten in dedication to Diana, Princess of Wales, sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling single in the history of the UK and US singles charts. He has also produced records and occasionally acted in films. John owned Watford F.C. from 1976 to 1987 and from 1997 to 2002. He is an honorary life president of the club.
Raised in the Pinner area of Greater London, John learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology, an R&B band with whom he played until 1967. He met his longtime musical partner Taupin in 1967, after they both answered an advert for songwriters. For two years, they wrote songs for artists including Lulu, and John worked as a session musician for artists including the Hollies and the Scaffold. In 1969, John's debut album, Empty Sky, was released. In 1970, his first hit single, "Your Song", from his second album, Elton John, reached the top ten in the UK and the US. John has also had success in musical films and theatre, composing for The Lion King and its stage adaptation, Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical.
John has received five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards, two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends award, and the Kennedy Center Honor. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 49th on its list of 100 influential musicians of the rock and roll era. In 2013, Billboard ranked him the most successful male solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists, and third overall, behind the Beatles and Madonna. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. He was knighted by Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998. John has performed at a number of royal events, such as the funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the Palace in 2002 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.
