Songs From The West Coast
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The appearance of "Rocket Man"-era cohorts Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone as backing vocalists touches Songs From the West Coast with one of the trademark sounds of Elton John's 1969-75 albums. His admiration of Ryan Adams and Rufus Wainwright inspires him to recall the often stripped down, lyric-driven sensibility of his early days. The tone of the words, which long-term collaborator Bernie Taupin feeds John, is rooted in a wearier version of the romanticism that fuelled oldies as diverse as "Your Song", "Love Lies Bleeding" and "Burn Down the Mission". Songs From the West Coast sidesteps bombast with only a few exceptions--"The Wasteland", with its invocation of Robert Johnson, just...