 Elton John For anyone who wished that there were a whole Elton John album that sounded like "Philadelphia Freedom," but minus any strong melodies, there is The Complete Thom Bell Sessions. Six tracks culled from Elton's attempt to do a Philly soul album in '77, three of which were released in '79, the rest shoveled out in '89 under the guise of "historical interest." There's nothing bad about it, unlike Victim of Love (perhaps the single worst thing that's ever come of cocaine), but only the single "Mama Can't Buy You Love" stands out. "Shine on Through," the sole Elton composition on here, is also pretty good—actually, it sounds like one of his better Disney-era tracks. But nothing all that memorable. "Country Love Song" seems like some kind of attempt to write a sequel to "Crocodile Rock" … which would kind of be like making a sequel to Road House. Strangely, MCA chose to program this with the three unreleased songs first, giving the disc absolutely no flow. Perhaps this was the recording order, but it's a much smoother listen if you do tracks 4-6 followed by 1-3. Hm … this review is about as unremarkable as the disc, come to think of it. Sorry 'bout that, I'll go get some caffeine so the next one is better.
Review by Bald Stan |