Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973/1996) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973/1996)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:35 minutes | 1,65 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)

Elton John’s 1973 best selling masterpiece – seven times platinum – was also his most brilliantly diverse record. Originally released as a double LP, the album runs a gamut of styles and features some of the greatest singles of 1970s rock. This hi-def release offers an amazing re-experience of one of the all-time greatest rock recordings.

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Elton John – The Lockdown Sessions (Deluxe) (2021/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Elton John – The Lockdown Sessions (Deluxe) (2021/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:15 minutes | 858 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EMI

The Lockdown Sessions is the upcoming 32nd studio album by English singer, songwriter, pianist and composer Elton John. It is set to be released through EMI and Mercury Records (Interscope Records in the US) on 22 October 2021. The album was recorded during the last 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic after John paused his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the pandemic. The album was preceded by the singles “Cold Heart (Pnau remix)” with Dua Lipa, “After All” with Charlie Puth, and “Finish Line” with Stevie Wonder.

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Elton John – Elton John (1970) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011] SACD ISO

Elton John – Elton John (1970) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 39:14 minutes | Scans included | 1,59 GB

Uses the 2011 DSD master based on UK original analog tape. Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players). DSD Transferred by Richard Whittaker.

Empty Sky was followed by Elton John, a more focused and realized record that deservedly became his first hit. John and Bernie Taupin’s songwriting had become more immediate and successful; in particular, John’s music had become sharper and more diverse, rescuing Taupin’s frequently nebulous lyrics. “Take Me to the Pilot” might not make much sense lyrically, but John had the good sense to ground its willfully cryptic words with a catchy blues-based melody. Next to the increased sense of songcraft, the most noticeable change on Elton John is the addition of Paul Buckmaster’s grandiose string arrangements. Buckmaster’s orchestrations are never subtle, but they never overwhelm the vocalist, nor do they make the songs schmaltzy. Instead, they fit the ambitions of John and Taupin, as the instant standard “Your Song” illustrates. Even with the strings and choirs that dominate the sound of the album, John manages to rock out on a fair share of the record. Though there are a couple of underdeveloped songs, Elton John remains one of his best records.

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Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection (2004) [DVD-Audio ISO]

Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection
Artist: Elton John | Album: Tumbleweed Connection | Style: Classic Rock | Year: 2004 [1970 original] | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 12 | Size: ~3.97 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive | Release: transfer of SACD by Island Def Jam MusicGroup | Universal Records, 2004 | Note: Not Watermarked

Instead of repeating the formula that made Elton John a success, John and Bernie Taupin attempted their most ambitious record to date for the follow-up to their breakthrough. A loose concept album about the American West, Tumbleweed Connection emphasized the pretensions that always lay beneath their songcraft. Half of the songs don’t follow conventional pop song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin’s lyrics are evocative and John’s melodic sense is at its best. As should be expected for a concept album about the Wild West, the music draws from country and blues in equal measures, ranging from the bluesy choruses of “Ballad of a Well-Known Gun” and the modified country of “Country Comfort” to the gospel-inflected “Burn Down the Mission” and the rolling, soulful “Amoreena.” Paul Buckmaster manages to write dramatic but appropriate string arrangements that accentuate the cinematic feel of the album. (more…)

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Elton John – Madman Across The Water (2004) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

Elton John – Madman Across The Water
Artist: Elton John | Album: Madman Across The Water | Style: Classic Rock | Year: 2004 [1971 original] | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 9 | Size: ~3.03 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Covers: in archive | Release: transfer SACD by This Record Company / Island, 2004 | Note: Not Watermarked

Trading the cinematic aspirations of Tumbleweed Connection for a tentative stab at prog rock, Elton John and Bernie Taupin delivered another excellent collection of songs with Madman Across the Water. Like its two predecessors, Madman Across the Water is driven by the sweeping string arrangements of Paul Buckmaster, who gives the songs here a richly dark and haunting edge. And these are songs that benefit from grandiose treatments. With most songs clocking in around five minutes, the record feels like a major work, and in many ways it is. While it’s not as adventurous as Tumbleweed Connection, the overall quality of the record is very high, particularly on character sketches “Levon” and “Razor Face,” as well as the melodramatic “Tiny Dancer” and the paranoid title track. Madman Across the Water begins to fall apart toward the end, but the record remains an ambitious and rewarding work, and John never attained its darkly introspective atmosphere again. (more…)

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Elton John – Honky Chateau (1972/2004) [DVD Audio ISO + WavPack]

Genre: pop, rock

Format: DVD-Audio MLP 5.1 24/96, LPCM 2.0 24/96 + wavpack 2.0, 5.1 24/96

Considerably lighter than Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau is a rollicking collection of ballads, rockers, blues, country-rock, and soul songs. On paper, it reads like an eclectic mess, but it plays as the most focused and accomplished set of songs Elton John and Bernie Taupin ever wrote. The skittering boogie of “Honky Cat” and the light psychedelic pop of “Rocket Man” helped send Honky Chateau to the top of the charts, but what is truly impressive about the album is the depth of its material. From the surprisingly cynical and nasty “I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself” to the moving ballad “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” John is at the top of his form, crafting immaculate pop songs with memorable melodies and powerful hooks. While Taupin’s lyrics aren’t much more comprehensible than before, John delivers them with skill and passion, making them feel more substantial than they are. But what makes Honky Chateau a classic is the songcraft, and the way John ties disparate strands of roots music into distinctive and idiosyncratic pop — it’s one of the finest collections of mainstream singer/songwriter pop of the early ’70s.

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Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973/2003) [DVD Audio ISO + WavPack]

Genre: pop

Format:

1 – DVD-Audio 5.1 MLP 24 / 88.2 + wavpack 5.1 24 / 88.2
2 – DVD-Audio 2.0 LPCM 24 / 88.2 + wavpack 2.0 24 / 88.2

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was where Elton John’s personality began to gather more attention than his music, as it topped the American charts for eight straight weeks. In many ways, the double album was a recap of all the styles and sounds that made John a star. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is all over the map, beginning with the prog rock epic “Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)” and immediately careening into the balladry of “Candle in the Wind.” For the rest of the album, John leaps between popcraft (“Bennie and the Jets”), ballads (“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”), hard rock (“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”), novelties (“Jamaica Jerk-Off”), Bernie Taupin’s literary pretensions (“The Ballad of Danny Bailey”), and everything in between. Though its diversity is impressive, the album doesn’t hold together very well. Even so, its individual moments are spectacular and the glitzy, crowd-pleasing showmanship that fuels the album pretty much defines what made Elton John a superstar in the early ’70s. [This Island DVD Audio edition features the album in Dolby Surround, as well as a making-of documentary.]

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Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973/2014) [Blu-Ray Audio Rip 24-96]

Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 76:11 minutes | 1,66 GB
Blu-Ray Audio Rip | Sourced Track – LPCM 2.0 Stereo | Cover sleeve

It was designed to be a blockbuster and it was. Prior to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John had hits — his second album, Elton John, went Top 10 in the U.S. and U.K., and he had smash singles in “Crocodile Rock” and “Daniel” — but this 1973 album was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John’s spangled personality. Opening with the 11-minute melodramatic exercise “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” — as prog as Elton ever got — Goodbye Yellow Brick Road immediately embraces excess but also tunefulness, as John immediately switches over to “Candle in the Wind” and “Bennie & the Jets,” two songs that form the core of his canon and go a long way toward explaining the over-stuffed appeal of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. This was truly the debut of Elton John the entertainer, the pro who knows how to satisfy every segment of his audience, and this eagerness to please means the record is giddy but also overwhelming, a rush of too much muchness. Still, taken a side at a time, or even a song a time, it is a thing of wonder, serving up such perfectly sculpted pop songs as “Grey Seal,” full-bore rockers as “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” and “Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock & Roll),” cinematic ballads like “I’ve Seen That Movie Too,” throwbacks to the dusty conceptual sweep of Tumbleweed Connection in the form of “The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34),” and preposterous glam novelties, like “Jamaica Jerk-Off.” This touched on everything John did before, and suggested ways he’d move in the near-future, and that sprawl is always messy but usually delightful, a testament to Elton’s ’70s power as a star and a musician. (more…)

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Elton John & Leon Russell – The Union (2010) {Deluxe Edition} [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Elton John & Leon Russell – The Union (2010) {Deluxe Edition}
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 71:29 minutes | 1,59 GB
+ Full DVD (from CD Deluxe Edition) – Making Of, Directed by Cameron Crowe | 370 MB
Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks.com | Scanned Booklet

The Union is a unique collaboration of two of the most talented artists in the music business. Combining forces and fusing diverse talents, John and Russell along with T. Bone Burnett have produced an extraordinary album. Recorded live in the studio with John and Russell on dueling pianos, the album features a variety of musical genres from R&B, soul, gospel, country, pop and rock. Icons Neil Young and Brian Wilson provide guest vocals on the 16-track record along with legendary R&B organist Booker T. Jones, steel guitarist Robert Randolph and a 10-piece gospel choir. Cameron Crowe has filmed the sessions for a documentary, creating too a moment of history as this is the first time that the genesis of Elton’s music has been recorded on film. Critics who have had an early preview of the album are united in praise for the work that Elton describes as a “Seventies record with a modern feel”. (more…)

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Elton John – Honky Chateau (2004) [DVD-Audio ISO]

Elton John – Honky Chateau (2004)

Artist: Elton John | Album: Honky Château | Style: Rock | Year: 2004 [1972 original] | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 10+1 bonus track | Size: 3.07 Gb | Covers: in archive | Release: rip of SACD by Island Def Jam MusicGroup | Universal Records (B0003609-36), 2004 | Note: Not Watermarked

Tracklist:

01. Honky Cat (05:10)
02. Mellow (05:29)
03. I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself (03:34)
04. Susie (Dramas) (03:25)
05. Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time) (04:40)
06. Salvation (03:57)
07. Slave (04:21)
08. Amy (04:02)
09. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (04:58)
10. Hercules (05:31)

Bonus track (1995 CD reissue)
11. Slave (Alternate take) (02:58)

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