I guess everbody has their own reasons for enjoying elton'smusic. As a teenager growing up in the 70s i liked what was popular,songs like bennie and the jets. Now i can't stand some of that stuff. It seems that in the 1970s elton's music continued to get more canned, commercial and unauthentic. Many of the songs had that same lack of quality. They would start out with promise only to break into the typical chorus. Little 3 minute songs for the radio that are so common in the don't shoot me to caribu period. Another problem with the music is the way songs were written. With one guy doing all the lyrics and another the music it is expected that something might be lost in the translation. This album is an exception. In blue moves the songs are longer, deeper with more feeling. The lyrics are more profound. Compare the words to "someones final song" with the older stuff. Both elton and bernie were experiencing difficult times and the writings mesh. Then there is the more adventurous music. The orchestrated "tonight" and nice purely instrumental bits like "your starter for" and "out of the blue". The entire album has that smokey jazz and blues feel to it. Some reviewers suggested that this album was the end for elton. I say it means he had grown up some. What's he supposed to do crocadile rock and saturday night forever?

Elton John has put out many outstanding recordings during his illustrious career. Unfortunately, Blue Moves is not one of them. In spite of some delightful arrangements and varied instrumentation, many of these songs meander without a purpose except to take up space. With Blue Moves being a two CD set, that means a great deal of empty noodling.

Possibly the biggest offender on this CD is Bite Your Lip(Get Up And Dance). The melody is not bad but the fade out lasts longer than the rest of the song. While I'm at it this fade out probably excedes the fade out on Hey Jude. This song is no Hey Jude. Get the picture.

Other misfires include the repetitive Boogie Pilgrim, the unfocused The Wide-Eyed and Laughing, the meandering Chameleon, and the overlong Out Of The Blue. The last mentioned song would be fine as mere two and half-three minute jam. However, at 6:14 it gets repetitive and boring.

There are a few highlights. The Your Starter For is a delightful instrumental and Tonight is just gorgeous with the fine symphony orchestra embellishing Elton's piano and vocals. Crazy Water and the big hit Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Words are other strong songs. Between Seventeen and Twenty and One Horse Town are semi memorable. The rest just does not register too clearly which must mean that Elton's melody writing skills were not near peak performance.

Those rating this CD five stars are likely diehard Elton John fans who would probably rate any of his work on that level. This collection is truthfully a medicore effort.

If your a true Elton John fan this album will be one of your favourites. This is certainly one of his best albums ever. The fact that it is not a 'commercial' styled album is its greatest strength. The album itself is 'blue' and reflects harder times in Elton John and Bernie Taupin's lives. But when any musician or poet is depressed, it is a known fact that they produce better work, more meaningful and emotional music. This is 'Blue Moves' all over, it is a masterpiece of artistically written songs, some of the best Elton songs, of all times- ('Tonight' is simply one of Elton's most moving songs). This album is a landmark in Elton John's career and any 'so called critizism' about the album being too long or depressing, is in my view not worth paying attention too. I was very excited when I learned it was a double album- that meant more wonderful music, and that's how a true Elton John fan will see it. Let's face it, were are talking about Music not a 'supermarket product'. This album just proves that Elton's priority is making wonderful music and not money instead.

It's amazing how so many people don't consider this one as one of his classics. This is probably one of his least commercial and most melancholy album he's done, but doesn't at all make it unenjoyable. The only flaw that I can find is that a few of the songs go on for a little too long. The same line at the end will be sang over and over again. It's most noticable on Chameleon, Boogie Pilgrim, and Bite Your Lip.

There are many highlights on this album. Tonight, One Horse Town, Cage The Songbird, Crazy Water, Shoulder Holster, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, and Someone's Final Song are my favorites. The only 2 songs I didn't really care much for were The Wide Eyed and Laughing and Where's The Shoorah? That's 2 out of 18 songs, though.

It is a shame that this is out of print. I think that this one ranks right up there with the rest of his from the early-mid 70's. I recommend getting the original with the two discs. The one disc version leaves out 3 of the songs.

There are parts of this album that presage the music that Elton John would create decades later. However, in 1976 much of the music on this album was so different from the awesome pop that he had been creating that this music turned fans off. In retrospect, Elton was going through changes that reflected in the music of this double album set, and while some of the music has survived the test of time, much has not.

The album opens with "Your Starter For," a light instrumental that is best classed as easy listening. This instrumental serves as an introduction for "Tonight," which draws upon the neoclassical musical style used in "Madman Across the Water." If you are a classical and pop music fan, you may appreciate this song, which has an extended instrumental introduction. The London Symphony Orchestra is featured in this song, which has light-weight lyrics that become almost filler to the stronger music.

The third song, "One Horse Town," struggles to be something, but has a hard time getting there. The song has a rock beat, but the style shifts in and out of a pop instrumental style out of synchronization with the rock beat, and there is a strange synthesizer sound effect that just dates the song as pre-disco era pop. This song just does not work for me.

"Chameleon" almost works. Some of the style is similar to that of "Captain Fantastic." Probably the song would have worked better had Elton worked to smooth out some of the transitions. Instead, there are a few places where the lyrics sound forced to match the music; still, an acceptable song.

"Boogie Pilgrim" is a throwaway song. The song could have been eliminated from the CD and no one would have noticed and maybe the CD would have been better.

"Cage the Songbird" is classic Elton. The style dates back to Elton's early albums. Had the entire CD been music like this it would have gone to #1 and been a great album. A flavor of "Rock of the Westies" can be found in "Crazy Water." The beat and the keyboards remind me of that album. This song is, while lower than Elton's standards of the time, acceptable.

The last selection of the first disk, "Shoulder Holster," has much in common with the music of "Yellow Brick Road," particularly the second album. This song is another good song with a classic Elton style.

The second CD opens with "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word." This song was released as a single with a fair measure of success, and is collected in a couple of places. The song is okay, though not one of my favorites because it feels to me that in some places the words were being stuffed in to fit the music.

"Out of the Blue" is an instrumental that fits the tone and style of the opening instrumental on the first side. Enough said. While "Between Seventeen and Twenty" is less than inspired, it is solid music and could fit in on several of Elton's earlier albums, particularly "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player."

There are some great harmonies on "The Wide-Eyed and Laughing." Additionally, this song features a sitar with Davey Johnstone performing. I like the sitar as a support instrument. This song is one of the best in this two-CD set. My only complaint with this song is James Newton-Howard's weird and distracting synthesizer noises. This song is followed by another good song, "Someone's Final Song." Once again the harmonies are excellent and the pace and style are natural and fit well. The next song continues the quality of the previous two. "Shoorah" has a silly title to me, but only because I have no idea what it means. The music, on the other hand, is a more mature version of the style used on "Madman." Again the harmonies and piano create a simple effective musical style that is what Elton does best.

"If There's a God in Heaven" is another good song, this one in the style of "Philadelphia Freedom," with a stronger blues style. In this song Elton makes good use of his voice and the solid pop-rock is well done with no hint of the synthesizer nonsense that seems to intrude in some of the other faster paced songs on this CD.

When "Idol" first starts it is easy to get confused because Elton sings this in the style of a classic lounge singer. While the style is different from Elton's usual style, it works; another well done song.

"Theme from a Non-Existent TV Series," another instrumental, follows. The style of this short instrumental fits with the earlier instrumentals, but synthesizers are more predominant.

The last song on the CD is "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)," which bears some resemblance to the music of "Rock of the Westies." However, since the song breaks little in the way of new ground for Elton, it feels like a throwaway song. The song is very fast with a lot of repetition that becomes monotonous and annoying after just a few repeats of "Bite your lip, get up, get up and dance, dance, dance."

Elton John could have made a great album from the music "Blue Moves" contains. Doing so would have required editing to eliminate the weaker tracks, making some minor changes to a couple of the remaining tracks, and then putting the remaining tracks in an order where the tracks supported each other. Instead, these songs of many disparate styles were all thrown together and the result is an album that is difficult to listen to. Looking back three decades it appears that Elton's musical vision was unfocused on this album, and he seemed to be experimenting and putting the results into the mix regardless of how they fit. In spite of the good moments, this album is an example of how not to make an album.