Elton John, normally known for his obstinate restraint, finally does something wild.
Sprawling's too small a word, this is an opening of the floodgates. When it all starts off with 30 seconds of near-silence, leading into a 6-minute instrumental intro to what turns out to be an 11-minute opening track, you'd be right to suspect that you're in for something genuinely adventurous. Unfortunately, the next 16 tracks take about as many chances, combined, as that one opening track.
When John puts his stamp on a song, it's better than it has to be, like on the Ziggy-meets-Sgt-Pepper bentback lounge classic Benny and the Jets. But too often he seems to be coasting, playing out the same basic tempos, keys, and song structures until it all blurs a bit.
Even Elton John's single LP's tended to have lagging second halves - stretching things out like this only exacerbates the problem. There's gems here, but you've got to dig a lot to get to them 3.5/5
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