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Post by BiteUrLip on Mar 4, 2018 15:26:14 GMT
Another brilliant 90's album.
It all starts with "Believe", but this is not among the top tracks for me, it is somewhat depressing. But the title track is a song I really love, it's got personal lyrics, but it's happy. Then we have "House" which is among my least favorites. It sounds too sweet to me. "Cold" is better, it is similar to the starter of the album, though it's a bit weaker. Then we reach close to the middle of the album with "Pain", and I love that song. The guitar riff is great in that one. The next track, "Belfast" is interesting, and I consider it a sleeper on the album. It's a beautiful song, but unusual. Then we have "Latitude", which is number two for me in this album. Simply love the mood in that one! "Please" sounds great, though I feel the guitar is not in correct tune, which is really weird. "Man" comes next, and it's an another wonderful song, though it lacks specialty. However, "Lies" I feel is the weakest on the album, though I wouldn't call it truly weak. "Blessed" ends the album, and I do like that one a lot too.
1. Believe *****+ 2. Made In England *****+ 3. House ***** 4. Cold ***** 5. Pain *****+ 6. Belfast *****+ 7. Latitude *****+ 8. Please *****+ 9. Man *****+ 10. Lies ***** 11. Blessed *****+
What to say, it's AMAZINGLY quality consistent! Truly a wonderful album.
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Post by rocketman on Mar 4, 2018 18:50:28 GMT
1. Believe 5 2. Made In England 5 3. House 4.25 4. Cold 4.25 5. Pain 4.25 6. Belfast 3.75 7. Latitude 4.5 8. Please 4.5 9. Man 4.5 10. Lies 5 11. Blessed 4.5
The individual ratings confirm that this is one of Elton John's consistently good albums. No filler, no waste. It starts off with two 5-star songs, and ends with a run of 5 good-to-excellent cuts. That kind of strength was seldom found on any albums outside the peak years of Elton's career.
Greg Penny's production is fairly clean, with a bit of 'gloss'. Not my favorite production effort, but good enough. The album features a return by Paul Buckmaster and an arrangement by George Martin on Latitude. Ray Cooper was back as well. Interestingly, the album is nearly devoid of backing vocals, with only one credit for their use, on the song Please.
A minor quibble is that while the album is consistent, listening to it in its entirety can almost be a bit, well, tedious. It's almost *too* consistent. But that's a minor issue, and an easy solution is simply to skip a track or two. I often skip Belfast, a decent-enough song but not quite up to the level of the rest of the album.
The album peaked at #13 in the US, but did achieve Platinum status, with pretty good staying power despite not reaching the Top Ten. The album spawned the Grammy-nominated Believe, the autobiographical Made In England, and Blessed. Believe reached #1 in Canada and #1 on the US Adult Contemporary Chart, and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Made In England continued a streak of quality studio albums that started in 1988 with Reg Strikes Back, and it may be argued that each album in that succession was better than the previous one. Whatever the case, Elton was no longer mired in the slump of inconsistency that plagued his work in the previous decade.
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Post by dougs on Mar 4, 2018 20:41:25 GMT
MADE IN ENGLAND:
Recorded in early 1994, Elton returned to having his touring band join him in the studio for the recordings. Continuing were Davey and Guy Babylon. Charlie Morgan was brought back in on drums, Bob Birch was brought in on record to play bass, and long-time member Ray Cooper re-joined the team. A bigger change was the installment of Greg Penny (DUETS) as co-producer - joined by Elton himself who hadn't done co-producing since the early 80s. Long-time arranger Paul Buckmaster returned for 6 of the tracks. MADE IN ENGLAND was a far more organic release than Elton's previous two proper releases (SONGS FROM THE WEST COAST and THE ONE) which had a more electronic sheen to them. Initially to be titled as BELIEVE, Elton decided late in the process to change the name feeling that "BELIEVE" was "too mystic" a title. Elton was riding high in popularity at this time. Both SONGS FROM THE WEST COAST and THE ONE had done very well in the charts and had also received mostly good to very good critical reviews. Further, THE LION KING had launched EJ into mega popularity achieving the exclusive Diamond certification in places like the USA and Canada. Monster exposure. So, what did MADE IN ENGLAND bring to the table?
This more "organically" produced record received a big push from his record company. The sales were certainly good but maybe not as much as had been hoped for. The sales were good but not as strong as THE ONE. There was a bit of a backlash from serious music fans who said EJ had again sold out - this time by writing Disney songs for kids. Perception is real for people. Regardless, many critics applauded a return to form. Rolling Stone magazine called it a "startlingly fine album." In Europe, MADE IN ENGLAND saw its best chart positions; #1 in Austria, France, Switzerland, and Italy. UK saw it chart at #3 as did Canada. The USA chart position was a bit less successful peaking at #13. Year-end saw 3X platinum in Italy and 2X platinum in Canada. It was the #9 album of 1995 in Austria. The singles varied in success from place to place. Canada accepted everything; "Believe" went #1, "Blessed" went #3, and the title track went #5. "Believe" had only moderate success elsewhere; #13 in the USA and #15 in the UK. "Made in England" scored only #18 in the UK and #52 in the USA. "Please" went #33 in the UK. Other than Canada, most countries did not embrace the singles. "Believe" had a startlingly impressive black & white video to help promote the song - one that we know EJ had one of his famed tantrums making.
MADE IN ENGLAND featured one-word titles with the exception being the title track. Bernie wrote the lyrics in the studio and EJ made a point of not writing to a drum machine which he had adopted to in recent albums. Paul Buckmaster's touch was felt throughout, especially on "Belfast." Even friend and Beatles producer George Martin was brought in to arrange on "Latitude" which is a truly impressive song. A shout out for our friend Latitude! Critics clearly picked up on Beatles influences on almost every track. The album is rich with guitars. After listening to MADE IN ENGLAND John Jorgenson decided to join Elton's band for the huge upcoming world tour. John loved all the guitar parts and the Beatles influences throughout. MADE IN ENGLAND also had its rocking moments; the title track rocked out and "Pain" had one of those signature Davey Johnstone guitar riffs. "Pain" really excelled live as did "Believe" and the title track.
MADE IN ENGLAND included a number of really strong outtakes. "_ell" was one of those as was "Red" and "Live Like Horses." The song "Red" did show up on a special charity album but has never shown up on an Elton record anywhere. "Red" did get strong FM radio airplay in Toronto. Elton felt that it didn't fit the mood of MADE IN ENGLAND. Shame, as it was stronger than some of the tracks on the album. "Live Like Horses" would emerge as a special single down the road and would appear in another form on THE BIG PICTURE. Lots of very good work was done for MADE IN ENGLAND. The running order of the songs for MADE IN ENGLAND has always come under criticism. When albums were king, a lot of time & effort went into choosing the running order. MADE IN ENGLAND didn't seem to hit the mark. Otherwise, it was a solid collection of Beatles-influenced well crafted songs produced in an organic way similar to his earliest records. The public bought into the album but not quite as enthusiastically as his previous studio records. His concerts in support of MADE IN ENGLAND may have been the best of his career. "Believe" got EJ a Best Pop Vocal Performance nomination. A song and record to be proud of. Despite the quality, I do find MADE IN ENGLAND a bit difficult to listen to all the way through and similar to rocketman, I find the production "alright" - nothing special or exceptional.
Doug
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latitude
Big Man In A Little Suit
Posts: 133
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Post by latitude on Mar 4, 2018 21:18:23 GMT
A minor quibble is that while the album is consistent, listening to it in its entirety can almost be a bit, well, tedious. It's almost *too* consistent. This above is a problem I have with the album, and probably is more of a quibble of mine then with most people. I do play it all the way through, but I never connect with the album as much as I do a lot of other albums. It seems kind of stark and with no 'warmth'. Hard for me to explain. I've ripped songs off the album, and put them on other compilation cds and seem to get more out of the songs when I do that. Of course an exception is 'Latitude'. Love that one greatly and always connect with it. I'll be kind and give the album a 3. I actually wish 'Hell' and 'Red' had been on the album. Great songs!
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Post by dougs on Mar 4, 2018 21:38:32 GMT
latitude:
Good comments. I actually feel that I SHOULD really like MADE IN ENGLAND but I, too, can't embrace all of it. I appreciate the effort on "Belfast" but I usually skip it now. I really like "Blessed" and it got mega airplay here in Canada; top 5 hit. "Believe" is very good but I believe they took out some percussion from the mix which left it just marginally sluggish unlike the live performances back in that 1995-1998 period when it sounded very good.
Agreed, "_ell" and "Red" are songs I prefer much more. It is EJ's prerogative to create an album with a "feel" that he wants but sadly both of these outtakes were missed by most and lost to the bin of time.
Doug
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Post by Dr Johnny Fever on Mar 5, 2018 12:35:36 GMT
Yes, me as well..can't get into the album...only really like 3 songs on it...Believe, MIE and House..which I used to rip to a CD...gone are the days of that...downloaded now..
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Post by kissybissy on Mar 5, 2018 22:52:55 GMT
5 stars.
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Post by nix on Aug 10, 2019 11:06:02 GMT
Album rating: *****
1. Believe ***** 2. Made In England ***** 3. House **** 4. Cold ***** 5. Pain **** 6. Belfast ***** 7. Latitude ***** 8. Please **** 9. Man ****1/2 10. Lies **** 11. Blessed *****
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