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AUTRALIAN IMPORT
Condition: Brand New Factory Sealed
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.
TRACK LISTINGS
Disc: 1
1. Emperor's New Clothes
2. Dark Diamond
3. Look Ma, No Hands
4. American Triangle
5. Original Sin
6. Birds
7. I Want Love
8. Wasteland
9. Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes
10. Love Her Like Me
11. Mansfield
12. This Train Don't Stop There Anymore
Disc: 2
1. Your Song
2. Teardrops - Lulu
3. North Star
4. Original Sin [Junior's Earth Mix Edit]
5. Your Song [Almighty Mix Edit]
6. I WANT LOVE (VIDEO)
7. THIS TRAIN DON'T STOP (VIDEO)
8. YOUR SONG (VIDEO)
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