The Lockdown Sessions

All in all, ‘The Lockdown Sessions’’ all-bets-off stylistic game of spin-the-bottle feels attuned to 2021’s post-genre Spotify world, as Elton continues to further his musical universe.

The extremes work better ... be it Cyrus's eyebrow-raisingly raw trawl through Metallica's Nothing Else Matters or the vocal and piano pyrotechnics which course through Young Thug & Nicki Minaj's Always Love You.

The music legend spent lockdown making new musical friends — it was well worth the effort.

An album that could have easily come off as a millionaire’s vanity project with his rich mates is actually a surprising, creatively rich endeavour.

If Elton occasionally recedes from the spotlight, The Lockdown Sessions demonstrates how he remains a powerful presence in pop even when he's in the midst of a farewell tour.

Even if this project probably won’t give us any fresh entrants into the large canon of classic Elton songs, The Lockdown Sessions is still a glowing testament to his enduring pop gravitas.

On The Lockdown Sessions, a rum selection of Zoom collaborations with everyone from Dua Lipa to Lil Nas X, that old keenness is still there, though only on “It’s a Sin”, his Brits team-up with Olly Alexander, and remarkably a posthumous duet with Glen Campbell on “I’m Not Going To Miss You”, is it matched with real emotional heft.

It Sellotapes together 16 collaborations that bounce between genres, and between covers and originals, in a way that risks staking the listener back into 2020’s weirdly scattered and out-of-time mindset.

This album of collaborations with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Nicki Minaj is by nature disjointed – but fun.

There are sparks in some of these team-ups, but not enough for The Lockdown Sessions to catch fire.

While Sir Elton contains multitudes I’m not sure hip-hop is his strongest suit.

It’s almost inevitably a hit-and-miss affair, but when the stars align it results in some intriguing work.