Elton John - Caribou (1974) Album Score: 11

This is heavily underrated in most critical circles, but those claims were probably rooted in the fact that this album wasn’t nearly as grandiose and ambitious as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. But if you bother to ignore that and listen to Caribou on its own merits, you’ll probably find that it’s still musically quite sound. Critics also probably had a severely negative reaction to that album cover featuring Elton John wearing a leopard shirt that exposes his hairy chest, fuzzy pants pulled up to his nipples, and that incredibly snarky grin. What’s this? A musician not taking himself seriously? For shame!!!

But if you like Elton John for being Elton John, then there’s a very good chance that you’ll enjoy Caribou. It’s true that this doesn’t quite have the same level of compelling material that his other albums had, but there’s still plenty of his classic tunes here. The utterly punchy “The Bitch is Back” is easily among Elton John’s most compelling and driving pop rock songs ever. Of course, the reason it’s so memorable is because the melody is excellent, but you can’t discount the magic of his utterly wonderful back-up band. That ultra-clean, glammy riff is an instant classic, and those back up singers are perfectly used.

This is also the album with one of his most famous ballads, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” The first time you listen to it, you’ll undoubtedly wonder what’s supposed to be so great about it. He spends two whole freaking minutes wallowing around with a rather uninteresting verse section. But when he hits the chorus, it smashes you like a ton of bricks, and it doesn’t feel like the last two minutes were boring at all. You have to be some sort of weirdo to not find that chorus tremendously moving!

I have to assume that the reason this isn’t so highly regarded is because of all that campy stuff. Most of that stuff is still good, except for that foray into cheesy country-western music, “Dixie Lily.” I have a rather large bias against country-western music, but I try my hardest to recognize when it’s done well. But it’s just not done well, and I listen to it clenching my teeth. Elton John should have known better than to pass off such a dull, cliched melody. Blah! “Solar Prestige a Gammon” is a cheesy ‘70s glam interpretation of an old Italian folk song... but I actually find that one cute and entertaining. The idea is pretty novel for glam, and I find the melody to be nicely catchy and endearing. “Stinker” sounds like a generic blues song to me, but the instrumentation is just too good that it almost completely evades the problems that it could have had. “Grimsby” is also a rocker that the band performs better than it really deserved... in particular, that wobbly synthesizer in that boring chorus deserves a handshake. Yes, I want to shake a synthesizer’s hand!

Oh, and there are a lot of ballads on here. What would an Elton John album be without them? Naturally, none of them come close to “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” but what else in the world does? Nevertheless, “Pinky” is something of a lost gem. Sure, the melody isn’t that distinctive, but his sweet piano textures capture my interest and the melody is nice. That song was strong enough to deserve an A-, but what pushed it to an A was a beautiful oboe in the second half. Oh man!!!! “I’ve Seen the Saucers” starts out to be incredibly clunky, but he redeems the beginning once the utterly soaring chorus comes in, which always seems to catch me by surprise... But he ruins the good time by reintroducing that clunky section, which completely interrupts that soaring feeling I was enjoying. The ending track is the eight-minute ballad “Ticking” that pretty much only uses the piano. Yeah, eight minutes is waaaaaaay too long for it, and he doesn’t exactly give us such a compelling melody or piano textures to warrant that length. But at least he does well enough to keep the experience from growing tedious.

This might not be as good as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or anything, but I assume that’s because he just wasn’t trying as hard. Can you really blame him? That was a freaking huge album! He just wanted to have some fun this time around. Whatever you think of the album, never forget that it was made in 1974, which is still in the middle of his classic 1970-1975 period. In my eyes, it clearly belongs there.

TRACKS

The Bitch is Back A

Hells yeah!!! You know that the old quaint Elton John shall never return, but why would you particularly care if you get these ultra-catchy glam tunes? Elton John’s voice is a little bit too buried in the mix, but you can’t deny that he’s giving an utterly spirited performance. The guitar riffs are very clean, but they’re catchy and they swing. I also dig those swinging horn sections, which makes this thing even more danceable. This is almost too fun.

Pinky A

Oh god, this is one of his beautiful ballads, isn’t it? This utterly gorgeous melody is so captivating that you’ll wonder why the guy hadn’t run out of ‘em ever since 1970 or so. The Beatles-esque harmonies give it an extra compelling aspect to the atmosphere. That oboe that plays throughout the track is so damned beautiful that it earned the song some extra credit. This is one of his most underrated gems.

Grimsby B+

This is a really neat song, too. That wobbly buzz synthesizer does a few neat things over this otherwise fairly typical Elton John rocker. The beat will definitely get your toe tapping! But I find this track coming up slightly short in the melody department... and that slower section that pops up doesn’t seem to transition as immaculately as it probably should have.

Dixie Lily C+

Oh boy... Elton John is messing with one of my huge biases. I hatttttte country music. I’ve been known to anger some people because of my sheer contempt toward that music. And here is Elton John not just doing full-scale country music, but doing cheesy country music. ...*shutters*. The melody is OK and contains a few hooks, but it does seem awfully cliche to me. Usually, I like to be fair and give country-western a chance, but it won’t happen here. I appreciate how immaculately it’s played, but I’m still listening to it with clenched teeth.

Solar Prestige A Gammon B+

That’s a strange song title... According to my thesaurus, it means “Sun Dignity a Ham.” Oh Zeus... please give me sleeping pills! ....... This is a very unusual song for Elton John. He sings a goofy Italian song in Italian that’s been Elton-John-ified (meaning that it has ultra clean drums and a catchy melody). It’s a fun little unpretentious tune... You’ll probably like it unless you hate ‘70s pop music or something.

You’re So Static B-

The beginning of this song is pretty funny... You can hear him playing some cliche notes in a sort of piano concerto. What happens quickly after is a pretty fun dance tune. This one does run into some particular problems, because that horn section is right out of an average funk-pop album. I suppose Elton John was getting too lazy to write his own horn section! Also, the hooks are pretty bland. ...But at least it has a good beat you can dance to. And, like it or not, that horn section provides quite a bit of that PUSH.

I’ve Seen the Saucers B+

This starts out sounding exactly like Procol Harum’s “The Devil Came From Kansas” and thus it’s incredibly boring. But after that boring opening 30 seconds, Elton John unexpectedly ups up the harmonies and delivers one of the most compelling melodies on the album. He gains so much inertia there, that it’s a shame that he repeats that uninteresting segment that opened the song. That was like soaring into a brick wall... an unpleasant experience, to say the least. But anyway, this is a nice song regardless.

Stinker B+

It probably would have lived up to the song title if it wasn’t for that rhythm section, which is just too driving to warrant that distinction. That incredibly low-register bass riff, ultra distorted guitar, and the mean-sounding horn section gives it that extra edge, and it is more interesting than it probably should have been. If you stripped all that away, this would be nothing more than an average blues song! ...It’s also nearly impossible not to love Elton’s snarling vocal performance!

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me A+

Oh man, this song presents me with an interesting dilemma. The chorus is so incredibly GORGEOUS that it outdoes most of his other choruses, and thus by default becomes among the greatest choruses of all time. But it takes so freaking long to get to this chorus that I’ve nearly fallen asleep by that time. It reminds me of my trip to Yellowstone National Park last month, sitting around waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. You sit there on a bench watching a steamy mound... but when it erupts, it is pure glory! He even gives one of his most soul-bearing vocal performances in his career on this track. I just have to bypass my reservations about the dull verses and give this thing an A+. It was all worth it. Completely worth it.

Ticking B-

The one thing I like about this track is that pure piano sound that he plays predominantly through this. In fact, that’s the only instrument you’ll hear through most of this apart from vocals and a few synthesizers mixed quietly in the second half. But this song is also incredibly long (clocking in at nearly eight minutes) and it doesn’t have a particularly captivating melody to warrant that time. Though it isn’t exactly tedious. Despite the intentional lack of instrumentals, he does give us a few nice textures here and there. It just isn’t overly interesting.

BONUS TRACKS

Pinball Wizard A

Oh man! I almost forgot that Elton John was in the film version of Tommy. It was about eight years since I saw that film, and I only barely knew who he was back then! Well, I can’t say I particularly prefer this over the original, but it is definitely energetic. Elton John sang his heart out for this one, and his back-up band turned in some remarkably vibrant instrumentals. This is a very good bonus track.

Sick City A-

This is a highly amiable pop rocker... Surely he had catchier songs in his day, but this melody has a nice flow to it, and it’s easy to get caught up. Once again, whoever plays that bass guitar is just splendid at it. He makes me want to dance with the song, which is more than what I probably would have gotten without it.

Cold Highway B-

This is a sort of weird mid-tempo ‘70s rocker with a few ‘50s overtones thrown in. It isn’t that bad, but there’s a really awkward development in here that makes me very jumpy whenever I listen to this. It also doesn’t have a melody that particularly captures my interest. It’s only three minutes long, but I look forward to it getting over.

Step into Christmas B

Here’s Elton John hoping to get a Christmas classic that our grandkids would want to hear in Christmases to come roasting chestnuts by the open fire........ But he didn’t come close, and nor did any of the other rockers, really. We’ll probably be listening to that Bing Crosby crap until the end of time. But this is a fairly nice song, although that glammy rhythm gets a little too cumbersome. I enjoy hearing it well enough, but the relatively bland melody is the reason nobody wants to remember this.