Reg Strikes Back

After 1986′s Leather Jackets, the only way was up. The singer got throat surgery, and although his high notes are gone, so is some of the drug damage: 1988′s Reg Strikes Back finds Elton once again in fighting spirit. Flaunting a fat hook, jaunty piano riffs, and a committed vocal, “I Don’t Wanna Go on with You Like That” was a deserved smash, and Honky Château‘s “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” gets a worthy sequel. That doesn’t mean everything else works: Bernie’s kitsch lyrics for “Japanese Hands” are as gauche as Davey Johnstone’s power chords on “Goodbye Marlon Brando.” The tunes aren’t always here, but at least the singer seems more present.