Peachtree Road Montana

Peachtree Road

Elton John

Universal, 2004

REVIEW BY: Jeff Clutterbuck

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/09/2004

Ladies and Gentlemen: I would like to announce Elton John's return to form.

Elton John's output since 1976's Blue Moves has been spotty. On the one hand, he's churned out great LP's like Too Low For Zero and Made In England. On the other, you have records in the vein of Leather Jackets. Up until 2004, one could never tell what kind of Elton record you were going to here. Fortunately, after the critical success of John's 2001 back to basics effort, Songs From The West Coast, Elton said he had "drawn a line the sand" in terms of the quality of his albums. Peachtree Road shows us that the aforementioned line is still in good shape.

At this point, no one expects Elton John to be the creative force he once was. The days of Madman Across The Water, and Tumbleweed Connection are long gone. The greatest praise I can heap on Peachtree is that it is the closest thing to those masterworks we've heard from Elton in a while. What does that mean? Amongst other things, strong and catchy melodies, passionate vocals, and a "stripped down" sounds of sorts. Unlike some of Elton's work, such as The Big Picture, the sound of Peachtree Road is organic, even simple at times. A good deal of the tracks feature Elton just playing by himself for short periods of time. Helping out in that return to the classic Elton sound is Paul Buckmaster, the man responsible for most of the orchestral interjections on Elton's early albums. This provides a sense of continuity and remembrance with not only Songs From The West Coast, but the earlier albums as well.

Given that fact the songs on Peachtree are extremely personal (e.g. "My Elusive Drug"), there was little chance of Elton falling down on the job in terms of performance. This is his strongest vocal and piano work in recent memory. "My Elusive Drug" conjures up memories of "I've Seen That Movie Too." On "I Stop And I Breathe" Elton just belts out line after line with tremendous gusto. The vocals during "Porch Swing in Tupelo," and "Turn the Lights Out When You Leave," have a distinctive country twang to them, reminiscent of "Amoreena" or "Country Comfort."