Made in England [Import]

Elton John | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 1, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Polygram UK
• ASIN: B000008OM6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Believe

2. Made In England

3. House

4. Cold

5. Pain

6. Belfast

7. Latitude

8. Please

9. Man

10. Lies

11. Blessed

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Modern Masterpiece, September 23, 2000

By 

Bill R. Moore (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Made in England (Audio CD)

I have heard a considerable portion of Elton John's enormous back catalog, and as an experienced EJ listener I can say without a doubt that Made In England, despite being a recent effort, is one of Elton's very best albums. In fact, it is my favorite besides Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (surpassing my previous runner-up, Honky Choteau). Okay, so what makes it so good? Well, first off this is BY FAR Bernie Taupin's best set of lyrics ever. They are good, fairly deep, and occasionally funny. Elton is not slouch on the album either, of course. He turns in a good performance on the piano and his usual stellar vocals. Also good are the orchestral arrangements (reminiscent of early Elton John albums) and Davey Johnstone's guitar work. Sure, he's not Steve Vai (and you don't have to be, if you're in Elton John's backing band), but he can play. The best songs include Believe, Made In England, House, Pain, and the beautiful Belfast. A must own for any EJ fan, in fact get it early.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars my personal favorite, July 8, 2000

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Made in England (Audio CD)

This is my absolute favorite Elton John CD... I listen to it beginning to end over and over. You don't need to skip tracks on this disc, regardless of your mood. Rockin' but not head rattling tunes. You can really turn up the volume and rock to such tracks as the title cut, or sit back and relax... this is just a great CD... easy to listen to at work, while studying or on a long drive. Excellent... sometimes mellow, but never boring. Thanks, Reg!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How in the world did this one slip by me?!, January 6, 2007

By 

I. Gross Georg "imgeorg" (Edmond, Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Made in England (Audio CD)

As a 35-year fan of Sir Elton John, I thought I'd heard all of them. I had never heard this CD before late 2005! It's extraordinary!

The album was produced by Greg Penny, who I must say I'm thoroughly unfamiliar with, but I have to applaud him. George Martin conducted the strings and orchestra for "Latitude", a bluegrass beauty that has me wanting to waltz every time I hear it! He was behind the Beatles' better work, and he's a man who obviously appreciates orchestration like I do. I'm definitely a sucker for a French horn in a song. Young people believe strings don't belong in popular music; that's unfortunate and it's their loss.

The great Paul Buckmaster conducted the London Session Orchestra on the songs "Believe", "House", "Cold", and the exquisite Celtic masterpiece, "Belfast", a song that absolutely brings tears to my eyes for its sheer beauty; it's outstanding. "Believe" was re-introduced to me through YouTube; it's a gorgeous work, with a powerful message and a great music video that went with it that features the Twin Towers in it and is done in black and white. Just gorgeous.

The title track is a hoot! In this homage to his birthplace Taupin writes, and Sir Elton sings: "you can still say 'homo' and everybody laughs!" And I found out that a blue Cortina is a car! "House" sounds as if it were written for or by John Lennon; this doesn't surprise me at all. I love "Pain"; it's an excellent uptempo rocker, and the lyrics definitely convey a sense of the pervasiveness of pain! "Please" has a rockabilly/Beach Boys feel to it that's very pleasant. I hear the organ by Paul Carrack on "Man", and it makes me think of the late Billy Preston. There's really not a bad song on the album. I don't think that's always been the case with his recordings of the 90s.

Can I talk about Sir Elton's musicianship? His powerful piano work in the song "Lies" is second-to-none, as it is throughout the album. Davy's guitar work is fabulous, and he obviously emulates the late George Harrison at times. I love listening to him. Sadly, Dee's been gone a while, but I wonder why Nigel wasn't a part of this recording? Charlie and Bob are admirable stand-ins, none the less.

Finally, reading Bernie Taupin's lyrics are a very good reason to forego downloading this once, at least until the booklet is available by download also.

Seems like I do remember the song "Blessed", but for some reason I never made the connection to this album. It's typical that the song they chose for the single wasn't the best choice. It's very mellow with a sweet sentiment, though, not the dance number I would have thought would have been radio-worthy. I have to keep in mind that there's a whole generation of people who don't realize that Elton John is first and foremost a piano man/saloon singer! Maybe the record company felt this would be the safest song to release, since that generation knows him primarily as a balladeer!

This album put me in mind to the old days when I would see the song titles on an Elton John record and try to imagine what the songs would be like while I saved up to buy it. I used a lot of allowance money on his records back in the day, and at 10 cents a week I sometimes had a long wait. If this one had been released in the 70s when I was a teen, and with its non-electronica, live instrument sound it easily could have, this would have been well worth the wait! It's the sound that made this black teenager stare at the stereo with open-mouthed wonder in 1972. Listening to strings in my music was no surprise to me, I grew up with the Motown sound and it was as common as copper pennies back then. I miss orchestration in today's music as much as I miss melody. For me, Elton John's "Made in England" album represents everything that's missing in today's popular music.

Made in England was a gift from Sir Elton John that I'm sorry about not remembering when it was a brand new recording in 1995. But I've got it now, drawn by the compelling CD cover shot by Greg Gorman of Sir Elton at his handsome best, and I'm sharing it with everybody I know who still appreciates good music, good vocals, good arrangements, and good songwriting. It's a classic.