Has there ever been such uncertainty surrounding a new Elton album?
When Elton finished up a 4-day stint in the studio in January 2012 the plan was for the resulting The Diving Board album to be released in September. However, the release of Pnau’s Good Morning to the Night saw Elton’s effort pushed back to February 2013.
A further delay was announced in November along with a title change to The Voyeur. According to Elton, the additional time
enabled us to go back and put a little sugar on it. Make it a little Eltonized
While the fact that the new Elton album will actually sound like Elton is obviously good news (!), the additional recording time, and Elton’s touring commitments, have pushed the release date back even further to September of this year. The title has reverted back to The Diving Board and there has, inevitably, been a change to the track listing.
Last week Elton previewed the album to a handful of reporters in LA. Check out the positive reports here: Hitfix and here: Rolling Stone Some of their comments regarding individual songs are noted below.
1. Oceans Away – a melancholy ballad about dead soldiers
2. Oscar Wilde Gets Out
3. A Town Called Jubilee
4. The Ballad of Blind Tom
5. My Quicksand – a cabaret tale of sliding into decadence
6. Can’t Stay Alone Tonight
7. Voyeur – sounds like a cut straight out of Madman Across the Water
8. Home Again – shatteringly intimate, yearning ballad
9. Take This Dirty Water – dynamic
10. The New Fever Waltz
11. Mexican Vacation (Kids in the Candlelight) – rollicking, galloping, boogie-woogie
12. Candlelit Bedroom
13. The Diving Board – feels like it could stop the world spinning for five minutes
Check out the earlier post The Diving Board for the original track listing. Lets hope the abandoned 5th Avenue shows up somewhere.
You will notice the Hitfix piece also has some interesting news about the 40th anniversary of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It appears a reissue is planned with remakes of eight of the album’s songs by contemporary artists. Which songs? Which artists? Let me know your thoughts.
C’mon already September. Jeez!
5th Avenue doesn’t appear on the deluxe version according to ej.com. Maybe it’ll be a b-side to something (if they still do those!) or on an album down the line.