Elton John
The Big Picture

"Goodbye England's rose, may you ever grow in our hearts, you were the grace that place itself where lives were torn apart..."

Thinking about Elton John in the grace year 1997, this is the first image that comes to mind, Lady D's funeral and "Candle In The Wind 1997," the best-selling single in the history of the world music industry: EJ seems to be an artist in full bloom, at the peak of his fame; all true? Absolutely not, the Elton John of 1997 is as much the talk of the town as he is in a creative ebb phase, as evidenced by the album "The Big Picture," a rather inconsistent record release that will pay in terms of sales (below expectations) due to excessive media overexposure.

Unlike its much more valuable and consistent predecessor "Made In England," this album does not feature Paul Buckmaster's orchestral arrangements; for "The Big Picture," Chris Thomas, who was already the producer of "The One," was called back, and the sound returns to an electronic imprint, with the inevitable result that the album proves to be a well-packaged and skillfully conceived rehash, but decidedly too weak and uninspired to shine on its own and relaunch the more strictly musical image of Elton John in the eyes of critics, which, on the contrary, will contribute to further sinking.

Despite everything, "The Big Picture" is not devoid of excellent points, particularly the title track, which manages to combine the reflective mood of the rest of the album with a good dose of freshness and rock grit, and ballads like the intimate "Long Way From Happiness" and "Live Like Horses", an outtake from "Made In England" notable for a beautiful melodic crescendo in the finale, where the electronics well support heartfelt and convincing melodies. It's a pity that the remaining eight songs, apart from a couple of good episodes ("The End Will Come" and "Recover Your Soul"), do not offer any interesting insights: they are all decent songs, the levels of ugliness of "Ice On Fire" and "Leather Jackets" are not even approached, but unfortunately they completely lack personality and slip away without leaving a trace, soon becoming boring.

Overall, "The Big Picture" is a substantial misstep that well captures the situation of an Elton John too caught up in far more lucrative commitments to devote himself 100% to his path as an artist, and who was probably the first to notice the mediocrity of the final product, as evidenced by the anonymous single "Something About The Way You Look Tonight", slyly coupled with "Candle In The Wind 1997" in a bizarre attempt at "subliminal" promotion. After a long series of artistic and commercial flops that will follow in the subsequent years (among them the musical "Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida" and the live "One Night Only"), our man will resurrect once again with the excellent "Songs From The West Coast" in 2001, confirming his spirit as an unsinkable highlander.