Review: Elton John's 'Madman Across the Water' 50th Anniversary Box Set

Elton John spent years struggling to get his career going, but when he finally scored a solo contract and began producing albums, he didn't take long to take off. His debut, 1969's Empty Sky, yielded no hits and wouldn't even get released in the U.S. until 1975, but his self-titled sophomore disc was a smash, going top-five and featuring his first big international hit, "Your Song". So it's perhaps not quite correct to classify Madman Across the Water as his breakthrough, since it was less successful than Elton John in terms of its singles ("Levon" and "Tiny Dancer" were both Billboard flops) and it's own chart performance, but it does feel like Reg had cracked a nut here. 

Madman Across the Water feels more fully formed than John's first two albums and more personal than its immediate predecessor, Tumbleweed Connection, which is a superbly crafted record--probably his best--but also a very blatant homage to The Band. Madman feels like a proper Elton John album through and through. There are some ambitious ideas probably too pop to really classify as prog ("Indian Sunset"), a pretty pop confection that may bear a touch too much sugar for some tastes ("Tiny Dancer"), one of those brooding things he does so well (the magnificent title track), the kind of self-reflexive yet humble look at life as a working musician that would fully flower on 1975's Captain Fantastic ("Holiday Inn"), and some eccentric character sketches that rely just as much on John's melodic gifts as they do on lyricist Bernie Taupin's imagination ("Levon" and "Razor Face"). Paul Buckmaster--rock's finest composer of swooping, lunging, bracing string arrangements--is also a profound presence throughout the disc. The only standard Elton John moves missing here are a cutesy-pie pastiche in the "Crocodile Rock" mode (which is one reason why Madman outclasses a good deal of what would follow it) and a rollicking, good-humored number.

For its (slightly delayed) fiftieth anniversary, Madman Across the Water is receiving the deluxe box treatment. Its vinyl iteration includes the original album with remastering Bob Ludwig performed in 2016 and three additional LPs of demos, radio performances, single mixes, outtakes, alternate takes, and extended versions.

Ludwig's celebrated remaster of the core album still sounds warm and deep on very flat, very quiet vinyl. The spindle hole of this disc is almost imperceptibly off center, so there's no adverse affect on the sound. 

Discs two and three offer an assortment of variants of the album's songs, as well as several versions of John's cover of old-mate Long John Baldry's "Rock Me When He's Gone" that would have filled the rollicking void had it been included on Madman. The best thing here is a long early version of the title track featuring Spider from Mars Mick Ronson on growly guitar, but John's sparkling demo of that song is excellent too. 

However, the real gem of the bonus discs is number four, which features Elton's appearance on the BBC's Sounds for Sunday, on which he played every one of the album's tracks except for "All the Nasties" intimately, with just voice and piano. His introductions give the performance the flavor of that old VH-1 series Storytellers. Like the main disc, the bonuses are all flat and quiet, and spindle holes are either well or perfectly (in the case of that BBC disc) centered. Sound is excellent across the bonuses too.