Songs from the West Coast

Elton John

℗ 2001

The appearance of "Rocket Man"-era cohorts Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone as backing vocalists touches this CD with one of the trademark sounds of Elton John's 1969-75 LPs. John has acknowledged those records — his most typically singer-songwriterish — occasionally, if mostly to revisit audience favorites in concert (1987's Live in Australia, a late-'90s VH1 show). But on Songs from the West Coast, his admiration of Ryan Adams and Rufus Wainwright (a guest here) inspires him to recall the stripped-down, lyric-driven sensibility of his early days. The tone of the words Bernie Taupin feeds this notorious diva is elegiac, rooted in a wearier version of the romanticism that fueled oldies as diverse as "Your Song," "Love Lies Bleeding," and "Burn Down the Mission." West Coast sidesteps bombast with a couple of exceptions; only "The Wasteland," with its invocation of Robert Johnson, is enough to provoke a dismayed "oy." The standout track is "I Want Love," a Lennonesque rumination that's their most impressive writing, separately or together, in more than a decade. — Rickey Wright.

1. The Emperor's New Clothes (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:28]
2. Dark Diamond (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:27]
3. Look Ma, No Hands (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:24]
4. American Triangle (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:48]
5. Original Sin (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:47]
6. Birds (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [03:53]
7. I Want Love (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:36]
8. The Wasteland (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:21]
9. Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:50]
10. Love Her Like Me (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [03:59]
11. Mansfield (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:54]
12. This Train Don't Stop There Anymore (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:39]
13. Written in the Stars (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:14]
14. Little Jeannie (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [05:00]
15. Whispers (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [03:49]
16. Someday out the Blue [theme from Eldorado] (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:40]
17. Friends Never Say Goodbye (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:15]
18. A World in Spanish (Bernie Taupin — Elton John) [04:34]