The Elton John CD Review

Breaking Hearts (1984)

1.Restless
2.Slow Down Georgie (She's Poison)
3.Who Wears These Shoes?
4.Breaking Hearts (Ain't What it Used to Be)
5.Li'l 'Frigerator
6.Passengers
7.In Neon
8.Burning Buildings
9.Did He Shoot Her?
10.Sad Songs (Say So Much)

 

The good fortune continues once again. This album was released very shortly after his last, Too Low For Zero, which was probably a good calculated move considering the strength of the material on both of these records. He smartly uses all the same players as last time, even recording in the same studio. Whereas the Too Low For Zero album featured more variety, this release seemed to flow a little bit better.


Again, there were two hit songs. The first, the classic Sad Songs a straightforward tune about the necessity to feel melancholy with the aid of music, and the second, is an in-the-face rocker Who Wears These Shoes. Most of the rest of the album tends to be more rock oriented than ballad oriented. The one exception is the beautiful underrated title track, featuring only vocals thinly accompanied by piano. He rocks hard on the opening track Restless and his fasted-up-tempo ditty Li'l 'Frigerator. The pace is slowed down slightly on In Neon and Burning Buildings but as mentioned earlier, there's great flow. Passengers is a slightly reggae number and Slow Down Georgie and Did He Shoot Her? are well done as well.


What is somewhat ironic is that fifteen years later, Elton now looks back at this period as the lowest of his life. He now admits he was heavily into drugs, alcohol and depression and he would not be clean and sober for another five years. He got married (to a woman) after this album was released and even announced (again) that the "Breaking Hearts" Tour would be the last. His marriage ended a few years later, but fortunately, he would tour again. It might have been this publicity that boasted his career in the mid eighties. Sadly, he was about to hit bottom again. This release and his last were definitely the best of the troubled eighties.


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