Elton John: The Lockdown Sessions (EMI Universal).
Rating: 
Verdict: Rocketman is headed for the stars
Lana Del Rey: Blue Banisters (Polydor)
Rating:
Verdict: Bold step forward
For Elton John, the first few weeks of last year’s lockdown were unremarkable. With his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour on hold, he watched Tiger King, played board games with husband David Furnish and sons Zachary and Elijah, and listened to music.
Apart from the swankier surroundings, his experiences were fairly typical. The one thing he didn’t intend doing — until he had a chat with his Los Angeles neighbour Charlie Puth — was make a new LP.
In the past three years, Elton has written his autobiography, Me; overseen an Oscar-winning biopic, Rocketman; and played more than 180 live shows. A little unscheduled downtime seemed to offer him the chance to take a breather.
But when pop-R&B singer Puth, 29, suggested writing a song together, Elton, a keen supporter of young talent through his Rocket Hour radio show, found it hard to resist. The pair came up with the love song After All, setting the template for Elton, 74, to embark on further collaborations.
‘Out of nothing I’d started an album,’ he says. ‘And it’s all Charlie Puth’s fault!’
The first few weeks of last years lockdown were not memorable for Elton John. He didn’t plan to make a new album.
When pop-R&B singer Puth, 29, suggested writing a song together, Elton, a keen supporter of young talent through his Rocket Hour radio show, found it hard to resist
The payoff is The Lockdown Sessions, a 16-track LP of predominantly new material that pits one of British pop’s hardest-working stars against a diverse cast of youthful singers and producers, plus a handful of more familiar rock, soul and country names. Sometimes, it can feel forced to combine established stars with younger acts. There’s something opportunistic, for instance, about Coldplay’s latest album, Music Of The Spheres, with guest spots from K-pop act BTS and Selena Gomez. But that’s not the case here: Elton’s first LP in six years was made remotely, often via Zoom, but it’s more fired-up than locked down.
It also gave him his first No. 1 single in 16 years, Cold Heart. This joint effort with Dua lipa and Australian electronic artist Pnau combines four classic Elton tracks including Rocket Man and Sacrifice to create an episodic piece pop that sounds like a real song and not a jarring mix-up.
It’s a testament to Elton’s enduring appeal that Cold Heart has also made him the first solo singer to achieve Top Ten hits in six different decades. Other stars on the album include country singers Jimmie Allen, Lil Nas X and Nicki Minaj. SG Lewis, a British dance producer, is also featured. Rina Sawayama sings Chosen Family with pop duo Surfaces, while Surfaces shines on the upbeat Learn To Fly. They all take Elton on a journey that is unfamiliar without compromising his musical integrity.
Not everything is new. A version of the Pet Shop Boys’ It’s A Sin, with Olly Alexander, was performed at the BRITs. The Pink Phantom, with Gorillaz and Atlanta R&B star 6lack, was part of the virtual band’s Song Machine project. Miley Cyrus’s overwrought Nothing Else Matters featured on Metallica’s recent Blacklist LP.
But there’s plenty of fresh material. Amid the bold detours, there is also an affectionate nod to the past in Simple Things, a tuneful country duet with Brandi Carlile that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The show was closed by some of the most prominent names. Finish Line features Stevie Wonder singing and playing harmonica. Stolen Car shines for Stevie Nicks. There’s a revamp of Glen Campbell’s I’m Not Gonna Miss You, a poignant song about dementia from the country legend’s posthumous final album.
The Lockdown Sessions succeeds on the back of Elton’s enthusiasm for music.
He believes established artists should offer ‘friendship and authenticity’ to rising stars. The Rocketman is still a vibrant elder stateman, more than 50 years after his debut hit, Your Song.
Many people saw Lana Del Rey as a novelty when she released her 2011 breakthrough single Video Games. She styled herself ‘the gangster Nancy Sinatra’ but few expected her enigmatic persona or smouldering balladry to endure. They were so wrong. A decade later, she is still an influential star: Without her, there would not be Lorde or Billie Eilish.
She is also very creative at the moment. Blue Banisters is her eighth studio album and comes seven months after her predecessor, Chemtrails Above The Country Club.
The California-based New Yorker’s forte remains the bruised torch song, but there is subtle evolution too — rock guitar on Living Legend and a brass band on If You Lie Down With Me.
This turnaround is partly due a change in the backroom staff. With her regular sidekick Jack Antonoff absent, Del Rey, 36, works with a variety of producers, including Kanye West collaborator Mike Dean, U.S. veteran Rick Nowels, British musician Miles Kane and her ex-boyfriend Barrie-James O’Neill, of Glasgow band Kassidy.
Many people saw Lana Del Rey as a novelty when she released her first single Video Games in 2011. Few people expected her mysterious persona and smouldering songwriting to last. They were so wrong. She is still an influential star a decade later: without her, Billie Eilish or Lorde would not be possible
Blue Banisters is Del Rey’s eighth album. It arrives seven months after its predecessor, Chemtrails.
Her songwriting continues to improve. Wildflower Wildfire archly references Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, but the knowing nods to pop’s past are thinner on the ground. ‘I’m writing my own story, and no one can tell it but me,’ she said, of this LP, on Twitter. You should take this with a pinch of salt. However, her songs are now more intimately and nuanced.
On Textbook, she examines her relationship with her parents, while Violets For Roses celebrates the renewal of a love affair and the end of lockdown: ‘The girls are running round in summer dresses with their masks off, and it makes me so happy.’
Other tracks are less common. The beautiful ballad Black Bathing Suit sounds a lot like a 1960s prom movie.
Del Rey continues to believe in her instincts, even though much of the pop music today is bland. She also keeps a sharp eye on Californian life.
Blue Banisters is unlikely that she will gain many new fans but it confirms her status of an original.