Elton John - The Diving Board

The Diving Board is the 31st studio album by British singer-songwriter Elton John, released in September 2013 via Mercury Records and Capitol Records.

The album was written with long-time songwriting partner Bernie Taupin and was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who had produced Elton's previous collaborative album with Leon Russell, The Union in 2010.

The album was recorded without Elton's touring band and returned Elton to his early touring format of just piano, bass and drums. Raphael Saadiq the American R&B musician singer-songwriter was recruited to play bass on the album and Jay Bellerose on drums.

The album was recorded over two sessions a year apart in January 2012 and January 2013. Additional arrangements were added to some of the songs and featured the 2CELLOS and veteran Motown percussionist Jack Ashford.

The album kicks off with a moving piano vocal ballad Oceans Away, which is dedicated by Taupin to the memory of his "father Captain Robert Taupin and the Great Generation".

Oscar Wilde Gets Out kicks off with a piano lick and moves into a slow boogie driven by bass and drums, with cellos. A Town Called Jubilee has a country feel embellished with slide guitar, set in the atmosphere of old decaying rural America. The Ballad of Blind Tom returns to the piano, bass and drum format with cellos and My Quicksand is a beautiful ballad pared back with piano, bass and sparse drums.

Can't stay alone Tonight is a more up-tempo number again with the piano, bass and drum format and some added keyboards, and was the third single released from the album. Voyeur continues the mood with another powerful ballad which leads into the single Home Again, a beautiful song about failed dreams whcih was the lead single released from the album. Take this Dirty Water is a more up-temp number and then we return to another atmospheric ballad The New Fever Waltz.

Mexican Vacation (Kids in the Candlelight) is a rocky number and was the second single from the album with an accompanying live video shot in the Capitol Studios. Elton included this song in his live set whilst touring in support of the album. The final track The Diving Board finishes with a suffle bass and drum track and horns.

The Diving Board received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 24 reviews.

Many critics praise the album as a "great return to form" and one of John's best albums of recent years and of his career. Alan Light of Rolling Stone gave the album a four star review commending its spare instrumentation and focus, saying that John has "regained his sense of musical possibility and taken a brave, graceful jump". Robert Hilburn, who famously reviewed John's American debut at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, praised The Diving Board's "finely crafted and deeply moving" songs that celebrate the past in a "fresh and revealing" manner. Hilburn goes on to say that if these songs had been played at the Troubadour in 1970 John would still have been "showered with applause and acclaim".

In the United Kingdom, The Diving Board reached No. 3 on the album chart on its first week of release and in n the United States, the album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on its first week, with 47,000 copies sold. It is Elton John's 18th top 10 album on the chart.

The single Can't Stay Alone Tonight became Elton John's 70th song to appear on the Adult Contemporary chart in the US, further extending his record for the most appearances on that chart that first began with Your Song in 1970

Rolling Stone placed the album at No. 25 on its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2013.

This is a Double Album 2LP Record set on 180 Gram Heavyweight Vinyl housed in a Gatefold Sleeve with Printed Inner Sleeves, pressed in Europe.