Trading the cinematic aspirations of Tumbleweed Connection for a tentative stab at prog rock, Elton John and Bernie Taupin delivered another excellent collection of songs with Madman Across the Water. Like its two predecessors, Madman Across the Water is driven by the sweeping string arrangements of Paul Buckmaster, who gives the songs here a richly dark and haunting edge. And these are songs that benefit from grandiose treatments. With most tracks clocking in around five minutes, the record feels like a major work, and in ...
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Trading the cinematic aspirations of Tumbleweed Connection for a tentative stab at prog rock, Elton John and Bernie Taupin delivered another excellent collection of songs with Madman Across the Water. Like its two predecessors, Madman Across the Water is driven by the sweeping string arrangements of Paul Buckmaster, who gives the songs here a richly dark and haunting edge. And these are songs that benefit from grandiose treatments. With most tracks clocking in around five minutes, the record feels like a major work, and in many ways it is. While it's not as adventurous as Tumbleweed Connection, the overall quality of the record is very high, particularly on character sketches "Levon" and "Razor Face," as well as the melodramatic "Tiny Dancer" and the paranoid title track. Madman Across the Water begins to fall apart toward the end, but the record remains an ambitious and rewarding work, and John never attained its darkly introspective atmosphere again. [The Super Deluxe 50th Anniversary edition of Madman Across the Water spans three CDs and a Blu-ray, adding a substantial amount of new material to the 2016 Bob Ludwig remaster. The proper album is on the first disc along with a live radio broadcast of "Indian Sunset," the original version of "Madman Across the Water" featuring guitarist Mick Ronson, Elton's version of "Rock Me When He's Gone" (a song he gave to Long John Baldry), the mono single version of "Levon," and an extended version of "Razor Face." The second disc contains piano demos of every song on the album, with two versions of the title track and two versions of "Rock Me When He's Gone," including one with a full band. The third disc presents the albums as performed on BBC's Sounds for Saturday on November 11, 1971, which aired in April 1972. Of the bonuses, the Ronson-fied "Madman" and the live version are the most enticing material here, but everything else is worthy, which is a nice development considering how the original expansions of Madman were so skimpy.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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Add this copy of Madman Across the Water [3 Cd/Blu-Ray] to cart. $110.23, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2022 by Mercury.
Add this copy of Madman Across the Water 50th Anniversary 3cd + 1 Blu to cart. $135.11, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2022 by UMC-Mercury.
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