ELTON JOHN

Rock Off The Westies

(MCA)

Elton’s not really a moody guy, so perhaps this is a reaction to Captain Fantastic, his somewhat moody and introspective autobiographical album of this past summer. This set is straight-ahead rock'n’roll that stops for barely a moment. While the album doesn’t contain a classic, such as “Benny and the Jets,” nor even a more transitory Elton notable, such as “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” it also doesn’t have any of the filler songs that marred the pre-Fantastic albums. Everything here has some hook or some nuance of delivery that makes for at least pleasant listening at home, if not a downright inspiring experience when it’s coming out of those radio speakers, as much of this will be doing in the next few months.

As of this writing, the word is that “Island Girl” will be the single, that is, the first single. Unfortunately, this “Brown Sugar”-gone-funkyKingston is the least appealing cut here; Elton’s Jamaican inflections are a bit too much to take — Hasn’t he proved his diversity by having two soul, hits? — and the whole slick semi-reggae thing has just been worked to a much-deserved death by white rock stars recently (see Eric Clapton, the Stones’ “Luxury”). If Elton wants to further diversify, he might do well to take off in the di-

rection of my favorite cut here, the jazz-tinged “Feed Me” (which, incidentally, would probably be the last cut they would release as a single). I’m not suggesting Elton as the next McCoy Tyner cum Leon Thomas, but the jazz-colored chording ancf riffing of this tune — while not. far removed from the cocktail lounge — do lend Elton a more intrinsic musical depth which previously he seems to have sought in dense and dramatic production. I suspect that one of the E.J. Band’s new recruits, James Newton Howard (previously of Melissa Manchester’s band), who plays electric piano on this number, is responsible for the different twist; hopefully in his role as the permanent co-keyboardist in the group, he can push Elton further into this new and viable musical expansion.

Other exceptional cuts: “Street Kids” is solidly based on Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider” riff and if you ignore the lyrics (that is, who’s singing what) rocks along with a grittiness refreshing to an Elton John LP, and “I Feel Like A Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford),” the album’s only ballad, has a pretty melody (ignore these lyrics for sure!)

On the other hand, ignoring Bernie Taupin’s lyrics can be a very rough chore. Example from “I Feel Like A Bullet”: “Like corn in a field I cut you down/I threw the past punch tbo hard/After years of going steady/Well I thought it was time to throw in my hand for a new set of cards. ” From the cornfields to the poker table in one stanza! Indeed, what a blossoming lyrical leap! What a staggering blow in the sit-downdinner-for-eight of pop lyric writing! What a Mount Rushmore amongst saplings!.. .It is truly a tribute to Elton’s abilities as a performer that he can even get past lyrics that bad, let alone make them sound — that’s sound, not read — good. Admittedly, “I Feel Like A Bullet” has the worst lyrics on the album (while remaining one of the better songs), but the nonsensical chorus (“Check it out, check it out, check it out...” ad infinitum) of the nautical rocker “Billy Bones and the White Bird,” and such lines as “too many cooks and a bird in a bush” and “if your mirror busts and your cat gets cussed” from “Medley” ain’t exactly somethin’ to shake a crooked mile at!

But as long as Elton is there with the music, Bernie overreaching himself is half-again as enjoyable as most of the stuff I hear today. Likewise, while not a. great album or even a great | Elton John album, Rock of the Westies, Captain Fantastic aside, is Elton’s most consistent record since Madman Across The Water, and it’s good. And that’s saying a lot.