Elton John Studio Albums ranked: Viewers hit back

[@docmeat]

Great thing with Elton, if you start getting tired of one classic album, put on another…there are SO MANY of them.

[@jimquinn5316]

Thank you John , it's very hard to argue with most people 's ranking on the 1970's being his most original albums , with The Captain & The Kid being ( in my opinion ) being his best in the 2000's

[@eltonmusicfan]

The Captain is such an interesting album and the 2000s in general were a strong set of albums for Elton.

[@davidfinn3362]

The top 6 from the early 70s are hard to argue with. I thought you had Too Low For Zero and Jump Up a bit low on your list. And i love the Friends Soundtrack, it seems to combine the best of the EJ album and Tumbleweed.. which ranks pretty high !

[@groofoot]

All right, I'm going to catch heck for this, but I would put both Ice On Fire and Reg Strikes Back in Elton's top 10 studio albums. I might actually put Ice On Fire at number 5. Elton's gift for melody is on full display on Ice On Fire, especially on 'Cry To Heaven', 'Nikita', 'Soul Glove', and 'Shoot Down The Moon'. Further, I love to dance, and 'Tell Me What The Papers Say' is a great dance song!

[@hairylittlewombat]

So many great EJ albums but my most listened to albums would be Captain Fantastic and Blue Moves.

[@eltonmusicfan]

Great choices. What's your favourite track on Blue Moves?

[@hairylittlewombat]

@@eltonmusicfan I love the entire double album but if pressed, I'd say "Cage the Songbird" and "One Horse Town".

[@eiwindowns3331]

I havent heard the albums lately, so I dont want to tell you my ranking now. But this is my favourite track from each album. 1. Skyline pigeon 2. border song 3. my fathers gun 4. madman across the water 5. mona lisas and mad hatters 6. blues for baby and me 7. funeral for a friend 8. ticking 9. Someone saved my life tonight 10. street kids 11. someones final song or chameleon 12. shine on through 13. victim of love 14. sartorial eqoence 15. eltons song 16. legal boys 17. im still standing or one more arrow 18. breaking hearts 19. nikita 20. hoop of fire 21. i dont wanna go on 22. sacrifice 23. the last song 24. believe 25. live like horses 26. ballad of boys in red shoes 27. electricity 28. and the house fell down 29. the best part of the day 30. the diving board 31. wonderful crazy night 32. Finish line Long catalogue😅

[@eltonmusicfan]

I was totally with you until Hoop of Fire appeared! But Elton loves that one, so what do I know?

[@eiwindowns3331]

@@eltonmusicfan yeah Im not a big fan of that. But that hole album is really weak. I actually think his albums came when he was sober. The early 70s albums, and the 90s and 2000s albums. The diving board has some incredible pieces

[@Scooterboi60]

Yes John, you pronounced Pnau correctly. The point about Solar Prestige being on the album after GYBR I think might have been the point that Elton was making when he asked Bernie to write it.

[@eltonmusicfan]

Good point but I still don't like it taking up vinyl space on such an important album. What do you make of the Pnau?

[@Scooterboi60]

@@eltonmusicfan I guess you’ve listened to “Black Icy Stare” by now but I’ll wait until your album review to find out what you think of it. Personally, it’s one of my favourite tracks on the album. I think the way they’ve arranged the track is really effective to the point that it could have been released as a single.

[@MIkeFreiley]

6:48, Yessir!! I put Blue Moves at #2 and Don't shoot me at #1. Yes... I like Blue Moves better than Yellow brick road

[@dirksdiamonds]

Actually, that's a decent point you make about solar prestige taking up that space on the album, out of only 10 tracks. It was rather a careless move on Elton's part. I wonder, if you were to do a "machete cut" that knocks that track away from it, in the interests of inserting an alternative track, which of the B-sides would be a suitable replacement in your view - Cold Highway or Sick City? I wonder if you would find the insertion of Solar Prestige on the Elton Vs Pnau cd more forgivable, in the interests of creating a new song with pieces of it.

[@jonathangoodman2636]

Thank you, John, for addressing my comments. All fairly subjective, as you stated. I would add that I view "I've Seen The Saucers" as a very good song; on your scale I would rate it a 7. It may have a sentimental pull for me and my childhood, my brother playing Caribou in the bottom bunk at night. But there you go, subjective.

[@eltonmusicfan]

Absolutely. It's so important what a song means to us at a particular moment and what memories come with it.

[@adamharris7383]

Personally i would rank Songs from the West Coast in the top 10. I think that it's an album which really hangs together as a collection of stories and i often listen to the whole thing in order.

[@eltonmusicfan]

Agreed. I always listen to the albums on order. That's why the deep cuts is so different, throwing widely ranging songs together.

[@MJ-qb5ph]

I thought jump up was a comparatively weak album apart from Empty Garden

[@eltonmusicfan]

Inconsistent, I would say. Do you like any of the other tracks? Legal boys?

[@007koko007]

I decided to rank albums while taking into consideration my own reaction to them. I had to be honest. If I would rank albums based on what the majority likes, my top 5 would always have only Elton's first 5 albums he released in a row since 1970. My favorite Elton era is from 1989 to 1997 and I can't go against that. It was the time that turned me into his fan and I really love mature and musically strong songs from that era. My 2nd favorite era would be from 1970 to 1973 - brilliant 6 studio albums in a row. I even like Caribou a lot. I was probably the only person as a 17 year old kid enjoying The Big Picture so much since first listening. Others were expecting another Tumbleweed Connection, so of course that they were disappointed as usual after Elton released a new album. I would feel very frustrated to wait 30 years for Elton to release another Tumbleweed Connection and then be forced by my own taste that is unable to evolve to crap on every album Elton released through decades. The Big Picture is IMO still one of the very best quality albums he released in his career. It's musically complex, exciting, even kinda dark, ambient and mysterious. It's polished pop, but it's Elton at his peak as a pop musician.

[@eltonmusicfan]

Thanks. I understand where you are coming from and I like The Big Picture as well. Recover your Soul, River Can Bend and Live Like Horses are all big scorers for me. We cannot expect another Tumbleweed, nor should we. All artists change and develop and can never repeat earlier triumphs.

[@mr.macaroni2093]

I actually really like The Big Picture it’s really underrated

[@007koko007]

@@mr.macaroni2093 It's criminally underrated. It's an album that should be in everyone's top 15 after they list all 'sacred cow' albums from the early 70s.

[@mr.macaroni2093]

@@007koko007 agreed I think on my ranking it’s like 11 or 12

[@berrysebastian9060]

Captain Fantastic should be number one

[@eltonmusicfan]

It's a great album but, song for song, I just prefer Tumbleweed. What's your favourite track on captain?

[@mr.macaroni2093]

My top ten Blue Moves The Captain And The Kid Rock Of The Westies Elton John Don’t Shoot Me Madman Across The Water Tumbleweed Connection Honky Chateau Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy