Elton John

Reg Strikes Back (1988)

1.Town of Plenty
2.A Word in Spanish
3.Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part 2)
4.I Don't Wanna Go On with You Like That
5.Japanese Hands
6.Goodbye Marlon Brando
7.The Camera Never Lies
8.Heavy Traffic
9.Poor Cow
10.Since God Invented Girls

By 1988, Elton John was ready—at least in theory—to turn a corner. Reg Strikes Back arrived not just as a new studio album, but as a public declaration of sorts. The title, winking and self-aware, referenced Elton’s birth name (Reginald Dwight), and the cover art—a surreal pile of discarded stage costumes—symbolized a deliberate break with the over-the-top flamboyance of the previous decade. It was, Elton insisted, the last anyone would see of his glittering alter ego. He was cleaning house, both literally and figuratively.

The background was significant. He hadn’t released a studio album in nearly two years—an unusually long gap for someone as relentlessly prolific as Elton. The vocal issues that had plagued him during Live in Australia were now resolved, but the more insidious problems—drug dependency and emotional turmoil—remained. Reg Strikes Back was, by his own admission, an attempt to reclaim artistic identity. Whether or not it succeeded depends on where you drop the needle.

Musically, the album is a mixed bag—equal parts renewed clarity and lingering confusion. The good news is that Elton’s piano, largely absent from his synth-heavy output of the mid-’80s, makes a welcome return. It anchors many of the better tracks and gives the record a sense of grounding that had been missing for some time. The lead single, I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That, is a standout. A brisk, piano-driven dance number, it somehow manages to combine nightclub energy with musical credibility. Poor Cow, a downbeat character sketch, succeeds in similar fashion—despite its morose lyric, the piano keeps the mood from slipping into full despair.

The ballads offer more subtle rewards. A Word in Spanish is tastefully rendered, evoking sun-drenched courtyards and late-night laments with its Iberian inflections. Since God Invented Girls, a clear nod to the harmonic style of The Beach Boys, feels more homage than imitation, and shows Bernie Taupin reaching for something poetic, if a little florid. The real revelation is Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part Two). Where the original was wistful and meditative, this sequel bursts forth with brass and rhythm—a musical about-face that somehow works. The lyric bridges the years between versions with elegance and, surprisingly, optimism.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album doesn’t hold up quite as well. Tracks like Town of Plenty and Goodbye Marlon Brando strain under the weight of their own intentions. The former tries for rootsy, the latter for satire, but both come off as forced and vocally overwrought. Other cuts—though inoffensive—feel like filler. There’s little flow, and the sequencing gives the impression of a shuffled playlist rather than a unified album.

Still, Reg Strikes Back deserves credit for its effort to recalibrate. It wasn’t quite a full return to form, but it was the first flicker of something more substantial. The voice had recovered, the piano was back, and the concept of “classic Elton” no longer felt out of reach. There would be stronger records ahead—but Reg Strikes Back was the first real sign that the comeback had begun in earnest.

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