Elton John: Songs from the West Coast

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

That Sir Reg has declared that this, his 40th studio album, echoes his name-making 70s efforts might be seen as smart marketing — there must be many who still love Elton John but haven't bought anything new of his since the first Candle in the Wind.

But Songs from the West Coast does sound like John from the days when he was younger and bluesier and suddenly Big in America. That's in both the sound — his voice and piano are up front — and the songs.

John and lyricist Bernie Taupin get pointed (American Triangle's account of a Mid-West gay-hate murder; Ballad of the Boy In the Red Shoes' account of an Aids victim's dying wishes) and emotionally frank (first single I Want Love), while the music ranges from pleasantly ambling West Coast country rock to the deep south sweat of Wasteland (where he invokes the name of blues legend Robert Johnson without embarrassment).

There are some lemons among the dozen tracks, when overbaked lyrics meet underdone tunes (see opener Emperor's New Clothes).

But unlike its immediate predecessors SFTWC sounds like an album from a musician rather than a venerable institution. For John that's an achievement in itself.

Label: Mercury