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Sep 13, 2013The singer has matched Bernie Taupin's best crop of lyrics for years with his own most emotively apt melodies to produce a collection that both harks back to the intrigues and interests of his earliest recordings, yet manages to break new ground, quite an achievement for an artist in his sixth decade.
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UncutSep 12, 2013It's an impressively strong set of songs, diverse in both lyrical themes and musical styles, and delivered with a confident range of drama and empathy by a "heritage" act resolutely refusing to rest on his laurels. [Oct 2013, p.66]
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Oct 10, 2013John is still going strong and better than ever. A few listens to The Diving Board proves exactly that.
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Entertainment WeeklySep 27, 2013It's slightly overlong and noodly in spots. [4 Oct 2013, p.64]
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Oct 30, 2013It may be too reserved for excitable fans hoping for I’m Still Standing sequels, but the purity and simplicity of this unadorned balladry (Can’t Stay Alone Tonight, The New Fever Waltz) may bring many who fell by the wayside back into the fold.
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Sep 24, 2013The Diving Board isn’t love at first listen. It quietly opens itself after several spins, unveiling a complex, winking toe-tapper of an album.
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Sep 24, 2013The Diving Board succeeds where the others did not. It does so by putting John’s piano and voice front and center, offering memorable melodies, and scraping off the production glop to reveal again the musician, the vocalist, the emotional artist still alive under John’s shiny shell of professional fabulousness.
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Sep 16, 2013Throughout, he remains the master of bluesy honky-tonking and surprising modulations that he always has been.
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Sep 13, 2013With The Diving Board, Elton has regained his sense of musical possibility and taken a brave, graceful jump.
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Sep 12, 2013It's an album that strikes a perfect blend of maturity and freshness.
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Sep 24, 2013The song ["A Town Called Jubilee"] plods along, one of a number that could have been trimmed to make an excellent record start to finish. But the successes are many, and highlight an artist who seems devoted to caring for his muse and its many unexplored corners.
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Sep 19, 2013It’s about words and emotions rather than big pop moments; this is a slow-burner, which though possesses grandiose moments of musical glory, revels in the detail.
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Classic Rock MagazineOct 23, 2013Yes aging is difficult but Elton and Bernie seem to be making a good job of it. [Oct 2013, p.91]
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Sep 26, 2013With The Diving Board and all its relaxed, appealing textures, John has rediscovered his roots, and managed to bring his career full circle.
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Sep 19, 2013The Diving Board proves that Elton John is on the right musical path once again, sounding so energized by the familiar trappings that a career renaissance, which seemed a long shot a few years back, now seems thrillingly possible.
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Sep 12, 2013The Diving Board is an adult affair, but impressive enough to explore, and reinforces Elton’s continuing creative renaissance.
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Sep 12, 2013The rich history which The Diving Board draws on also slightly undermines it: there is certainly nothing bad here yet so much of it has been done by Elton before.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 23 out of 26
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Mixed: 2 out of 26
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Negative: 1 out of 26
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Feb 13, 2019Elton John is better here than in Peachtree Road or The Captain & The Kid, his best album since Songs From The West Coast!!!
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Apr 3, 2016
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Feb 1, 2014