The Union should've been a Leon Russell album produced by Elton John and titled The Confederacy. Jones, Marc Ribot, Jim Keltner, haunts positively Gershwin, while spiritual "In the Hands of Angels" closes equally breathtaking. Opener "If It Wasn't For Bad" ("you'd be good"), with a session posse including Booker T. At 63 minutes, the LP's cluttered ("Jimmie Rodgers' Dream"), but as framed by a pair of Russell compositions, its structure saves it. The master and disciple meet at the gospel chorus crossroads and double pianos of "Hey Ahab" and gorgeous "I Should Have Sent Roses." Too often The Union loses out to John's and Taupin's melodrama ("There's No Tomorrow"), though when their aural staginess works ("When Love Is Dying"), John's irresistible. Chugging rocker "Monkey Suit" might already be slated for John's next greatest hits. The team behind 1970's Tumbleweed Connection and Honky Ch รข teau ('72) contribute eight of 14 tunes, the best of which, "Gone to Shiloh," sounds like a Leon Russell song, a Civil War lament beginning with the Oklahoman's waves of grain vocals and a fragile verse by Neil Young. Rather than a true joining together, The Union delivers the best Elton John/Bernie Taupin album in decades thanks to Leon Russell's Dixie omnipresence. Elton John/Leon Russell The Union (Decca)
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