Elton John

The Lockdown Sessions

Elton John brings a wildly eclectic set of collaborators together for The Lockdown Sessions. It’s pure 21st-century pop, spiked with John’s vocals and piano.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.