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Elton John
The Captain & The Kid
(Interscope)
The Music Box's #4 album of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, November 2006, Volume 13, #11
Written by John Metzger
Since releasing Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy in 1975,
Elton John’s recording career has been spotty and uninspired, but after spending
several decades favoring cheesy pop songs over artistically credible
confections, he finally managed to reconnect with his roots on 2001’s Songs
from the West Coast. Granted, the endeavor wasn’t a complete success, but it
did make the case that a creative fire still burned within him, thus providing a
hint that perhaps he still had something left to say. Unfortunately, on his
subsequent effort Peachtree Road, he fell back, at least in part, upon
his old ways. Despite its many flaws, however, the decidedly uneven affair
continued his reawakening, leaving no doubt that John was fighting to escape the
stagnant quagmire that had contained him for nearly 25 years. It would be easy
to scoff at the notion that, for his latest project, John opted to create a
sequel to his last classic outing Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
Yet, the fact of the matter is that the resulting endeavor The Captain & The
Kid not only is the culmination of his journey back in time, but it also is
one of the finest efforts of his career.
On Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John and lyricist
Bernie Taupin examined the misery and failure that plagued their lives before
they achieved financial success. By contrast, The Captain & The Kid
catches the duo on the other side of their meteoric rise, and throughout the
endeavor, they reflect upon their inability to cope with fame and fortune.
Tucked within Wouldn’t Have You Any Other Way (NYC)’s fond reminiscence,
for example, rests a fallacious belief in their own indestructibility, while Tinderbox conveys the fragility of their tempestuous relationship.
Elsewhere, Blues Never Fade Away is an utterly moving ode to those who
died prematurely, whether due to AIDS, drugs, or murder, and The Bridge
is both a pensive meditation upon losing one’s muse as well as a tale of
perseverance that links Your Song with Someone Saved My Life Tonight.
In viewing their lives from the wiser perspective of middle age, John and Taupin
magnificently capture the true essence of their experiences together, and had The Captain & The Kid been conceived and recorded at any other point in
their careers, the album never would have worked nearly as well as it does.
What helps to solidify The Captain & The Kid’s importance is that,
from start to finish, the collection contains the most satisfying batch of tunes
that John has concocted in years. Where some of the melodic moves that he
employed on Songs from the West Coast and, to a greater extent, Peachtree Road felt forced, the entirety of The Captain & The Kid
unfolds in an effortlessly organic fashion. All 10 of its tracks are immediately
ingratiating, and the passage of time does little to diminish their potency. A
chorale of backing vocals combined with the majesty of John’s arrangements lends
the music a theatrical air that is well suited to the album’s grand, underlying
drama. Fortunately, John resisted the urge to overdo it by slathering the set
with the pomp and circumstance of a series of overblown string accompaniments.
Based around John’s voice and piano, the simplified sound that permeates The Captain & The Kid lends a warm intimacy to the material that is akin to
his 1973 gem Honky Chateau, while the glam-imbued textures of Just
Like Noah’s Ark and the fiery intensity of ...And the House Fell Down
and Tinderbox provide positive proof that he is reinvested fully in his
work. Undoubtedly, youngsters will dismiss The Captain & The Kid as the
ruminations of an old man who hasn’t been vital for years and is desperate to
return to his glory days. Yet, in striking the perfect balance between his
commercial aspirations and his artistic pursuits, John has sculpted an album
that is nearly as powerful, as vibrant, and as bold as anything that he has ever
done.  ½
The Captain & The Kid is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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