Elton John's back! He's gone back to his traditional piano and vocal (and only a little bit of production) with this new album, Songs From The West Coast.

Saying it is a 'back-to-basics' piano and vocal album gives the impression that it's just an album full of ballads. It definitely is not. There is some production, just not as bright as the Lion King soundtrack for example.

Songs From The West Coast is reinstating Sir Elton as an album artist rather than Disney cartoon soundtrack writer or the writer of the Princess Diana Candle In The Wind single. His first new material of the twenty-first century is similar to the material he was doing years ago, more grown up though.

He said that the challenge of writing the album, which he and long-time lyricist Bernie Taupin chose to accept, was "to make something as good as any of the albums we'd made, from Elton John right up to Captain Fantastic".

The album opens with The Emperor's New Clothes, a great opener reminding us that this is the Elton John that we want to hear.

The first track that was recorded for the album was American Triange which is about the murder of a young gay man. "Bernie gave me the lyric," said Elton, "and I thought I'm so passionate about this, I've got to write it - because if I can't write a decent song to this lyric and about this subject matter, then I'm in real big trouble."

With its slow but gorgeous melody and chord changes Original Sin is one of the highlights of the album. The track is one of the ballads.

The first single to be lifted from the album was I Want Love. Again, a fantastic passionate vocal over a piano and drums.

The Wasteland is an up-tempo gospel blues record. Elton says that he hasn't "played piano like that on record for ages". It sounds like something from a west-end musical.

Some people are saying that out of his forty-odd albums this is one of the best. He said about this album: "I'm Elton John...and on this album, I'm just going to be as Elton as I can!" Songs From The West Coast is very 'Elton'.