Elton John

Leather Jackets (1986)

1.Leather Jackets
2.Hoop of Fire
3.Don't Trust That Woman
4.Go it Alone
5.Gypsy Heart
6.Slow Rivers
7.Heartache all Over the World
8.Angeline
9.Memory of Love
10.Paris
11.I Fall Apart

Leather Jackets is often cited—without much debate—as the nadir of Elton John’s studio career. Whether it’s truly worse than Ice on Fire is a matter of taste, but at best, this album can only be described as a marginal improvement. And even that’s being generous.

By Elton’s own later admission, the recording sessions were a blur of substance abuse and personal chaos. He’s since confessed that he remembers very little of the process. Listening to the album, one isn’t surprised. The sound is soaked in mid-’80s production clichés—overbearing synthesizers, gated drums, and arrangements more suited to a dance floor in Ibiza than a piano bench in Pinner. It’s not so much a cohesive album as it is a scattered collection of glossed-up tracks assembled under duress.

Once again, the “band” is a patchwork of players. Davey Johnstone is present but sidelined; Elton himself plays only intermittently, and even then, often on synthesizer rather than piano. At times, it feels as if the album is trying to make as little use of its namesake as possible.

And yet, buried beneath the lacquer, there are moments—brief glimmers—that suggest all was not completely lost. Hoop of Fire is one of them: a haunting, slow-burning ballad with genuine emotional weight, and a melody that recalls the depth of Elton’s earlier work. Paris is another standout, elegant and restrained, with a wistfulness that seems completely out of step with the rest of the album—and all the better for it. Elsewhere, I Fall Apart closes the album on an oddly introspective note. Angeline is energetic, if lyrically problematic, and Don’t Trust That Woman—co-written with Cher under the alias “Lady Choc Ice”—at least manages to be memorable, if not essential. But these bright spots are islands in an otherwise murky sea.

Then there’s Heartache All Over the World, the album’s lead single and perhaps its greatest miscalculation. A limp retread of Wrap Her Up from Ice on Fire, it failed to chart and failed to inspire—an unfortunate double whammy. The rest of the album fares little better. Tracks blur into one another, carried by the same synthetic pulse and indistinct hooks.

Behind the scenes, things were equally strained. This was Elton’s final studio album under his Geffen Records contract, and rumors at the time suggested that relations had deteriorated to such a point that the label made minimal effort to promote the release. If true, it would go some way toward explaining the commercial performance: Leather Jackets became the first Elton John album to completely miss the U.S. Top 100.

And yet, history shows that Elton has always been more phoenix than flameout. As he’d done before, he would eventually rebound—stronger, wiser, and with the clarity that only comes after a fall. Leather Jackets may be the lowest point in his catalogue, but it also marks the bottom of a descent. From here, the only way left was up.

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