The Lockdown Sessions
The Lockdown Sessions | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 22 October 2021 | |||
Recorded | 2020–2021 | |||
Length | 65:15 | |||
Label | ||||
Elton John chronology | ||||
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Singles from The Lockdown Sessions | ||||
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The Lockdown Sessions is the 5th collaborative album by English singer-songwriter Elton John. It was released through EMI in the UK and Interscope Records in the USA on 22 October 2021. The album was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic after Elton was forced to pause his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the pandemic. The album includes three singles, "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" with Dua Lipa, "After All" with Charlie Puth, and "Finish Line" with Stevie Wonder.
Background
The album features several previously released tracks: "Learn to Fly", released in June 2020; "Chosen Family", John's duet with Rina Sawayama on her Sawayama album; the Gorillaz' track "The Pink Phantom" from their 2020 album Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, on which John appears as a guest alongside 6lack; John's cover of the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin" along with Years & Years, released in May 2021; Miley Cyrus' version of "Nothing Else Matters" featuring John alongside various other guests, released in June 2021 from the Metallica tribute album The Metallica Blacklist; and John's collaboration with Lil Nas X "One of Me", from Lil Nas X's debut studio album Montero.
Besides these, the record also features collaborations with other artists including Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, Brandi Carlile, Charlie Puth, Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj, Young Thug, Stevie Nicks and Glen Campbell.
John explained the project in a statement: "Some of the recording sessions had to be done remotely, via Zoom, which I'd obviously never done before. Some of the sessions were recorded under very stringent safety regulations: working with another artist, but separated by glass screens. But all the tracks I worked on were really interesting and diverse, stuff that was completely different to anything I'm known for, stuff that took me out of my comfort zone into completely new territory. And I realised there was something weirdly familiar about working like this. At the start of my career, in the late 60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that. I'd come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was still a blast."
When the album hit number-one in the UK charts on 29 October 2021, John said "I am so proud of what we have created" and wrote on his instagram post:
''This album is all about the capacity for music to bring people together to form new friendships and connections and right now I couldn’t feel more connected to my amazing fans in the UK who made this happen.
When I started collaborating with some of my favourite artists at the start of the pandemic, I couldn’t have dreamt in my wildest dreams it would lead to a number one album. I am so proud of what we have created and thrilled that it has connected with our fans to such a degree. It shows the spirit of collaboration and togetherness that can still happen in the most trying circumstances.
Thank you to everyone who helped bring this album to life - I love you all ❤''
Singles
The lead single, "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" with Dua Lipa, combines elements of John's 1989 song "Sacrifice", his 1972 single "Rocket Man", his 1976 album track "Where's the Shoorah?" and his 1983 single "Kiss the Bride", and was released on 13 August 2021. On 15 October 2021, the single peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart. This was John’s first UK number one in 16 years, since 2005's posthumous 2Pac collaboration "Ghetto Gospel".
The album's official second single, "After All", is a collaboration with American singer Charlie Puth. It was released on 22 September 2021.
The album's official third single, "Finish Line", is a collaboration with American singer Stevie Wonder. It was released on 30 September 2021.
Critical reception
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 71/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The Independent | |
Mojo | |
NME | |
The Observer | |
PopMatters | 8/10 |
Rolling Stone | |
Uncut | 6/10 |
The Lockdown Sessions received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 71 based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Gary Ryan from NME gave it four out of five stars, saying: "All in all, The Lockdown Sessions' all-bets-off stylistic game of spin-the-bottle feels attuned to 2021's post-genre Spotify world, as Elton continues to further his musical universe".
Commercial performance
The album was released on 22 October 2021, and in the OCC's UK midweek chart update on 25 October, the album was described as being in a "four way battle" with Duran Duran, Lana Del Rey and Biffy Clyro for the number-one position. It later became John's eighth number-one album in the UK on 29 October 2021, his first number-one album since 2012's Good Morning to the Night.
The Lockdown Sessions achieved 31,000 chart sales in the UK, 84% of which were physical (CD and vinyl) sales in the first week. It was John's second number one in the UK in less than a month – "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" with Dua Lipa reached number one on the UK Singles Chart earlier in the month.
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" (with Dua Lipa) | Pnau | 3:22 | |
2. | "Always Love You" (with Young Thug and Nicki Minaj) |
|
| 4:17 |
3. | "Learn to Fly" (with Surfaces) | Surfaces | 3:31 | |
4. | "After All" (with Charlie Puth) |
| Puth | 3:28 |
5. | "Chosen Family" (with Rina Sawayama) | Rina Sawayama | Danny L Harle | 4:40 |
6. | "The Pink Phantom" (Gorillaz featuring Elton John and 6lack) |
| 4:13 | |
7. | "It's a Sin" (Global Reach Mix) (with Years & Years) | 4:44 | ||
8. | "Nothing Else Matters" (Miley Cyrus featuring Watt, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo and Chad Smith) | Watt | 6:35 | |
9. | "Orbit" (with SG Lewis) | SG Lewis | 3:28 | |
10. | "Simple Things" (with Brandi Carlile) |
| Watt | 4:11 |
11. | "Beauty in the Bones" (with Jimmie Allen) |
| Ash Bowers | 3:50 |
12. | "One of Me" (Lil Nas X featuring Elton John) |
|
| 2:41 |
13. | "E-Ticket" (with Eddie Vedder) |
| Watt | 3:18 |
14. | "Finish Line" (with Stevie Wonder) |
| Watt | 4:24 |
15. | "Stolen Car" (with Stevie Nicks) |
| Watt | 5:37 |
16. | "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" (with Glen Campbell) | Raymond | 2:56 | |
Total length: | 65:15 |
Charts
Chart (2021) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) | 2 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 6 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 22 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 3 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard) | 5 |
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI) | 35 |
Danish Albums (Hitlisten) | 26 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 19 |
French Albums (SNEP) | 8 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 5 |
Irish Albums (OCC) | 9 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) | 15 |
Japan Hot Albums (Billboard Japan) | 58 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) | 57 |
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA) | 30 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 4 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) | 14 |
Polish Albums (ZPAV) | 19 |
Portuguese Albums (AFP) | 30 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) | 2 |
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) | 25 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 41 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 4 |
UK Albums (OCC) | 1 |
US Billboard 200 | 10 |
Release history
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
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Various | 22 October 2021 | Vinyl | ||
Brazil | 3 December 2021 | CD | Universal Music Brasil |