The Lockdown Sessions | ||||
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Studio album by Elton John and various artists | ||||
Released | 22 October 2021 | |||
Recorded | 2020–2021 | |||
Genre | Pop, rock, dance, disco, R&B, hip-hop, country pop, synth-pop, dream pop, soft rock, pop rap, trap, etc. | |||
Length | 65:32 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Elton John and various artists chronology | ||||
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Singles from The Lockdown Sessions | ||||
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The Lockdown Sessions is a collaborative studio album by English musician Elton John, released through EMI in the United Kingdom and Interscope Records in the United States on 22 October 2021. [1] It was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, after John was forced to pause his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to lockdown. [2] The album includes three singles: "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" with Dua Lipa, "After All" with Charlie Puth, and "Finish Line" with Stevie Wonder. A 2022 reissue of the album includes "Merry Christmas" with Ed Sheeran and "Hold Me Closer" with Britney Spears.
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; [3] 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; [3] 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. [4] [5] [3]
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." [6]
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" [7] and wrote on his social media accounts:
"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. ❤"
— Elton John [8]
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 Tupac Shakur collaboration "Ghetto Gospel". [9]
The album's official second single, "After All", is a collaboration with American singer Charlie Puth. It was released on 22 September 2021. [10] [11] [12]
The album's official third single, "Finish Line", is a collaboration with American singer Stevie Wonder. It was released on 30 September 2021. [13] [14] "Finish Line" failed to chart on the Official UK Top 100, but debuted at number 73 on the Official UK Singles Sales Chart Top 100 on 28 January 2022 [15]
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 6.8/10 [16] |
Metacritic | 70/100 [17] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The Independent | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Mojo | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
NME | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Observer | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
PopMatters | 8/10 [22] |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Uncut | 6/10 [24] |
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 70 based on ten reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [17] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. [16] 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". [20]
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. [25] 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 . [26]
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. [27] In the United States, the album debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 29,000 album-equivalent units, 17,000 of that sum were pure album copies, it went straight to number four on the U.S. Top Album Sales chart. [28] [29]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" (with Dua Lipa) | Pnau | 3:39 | |
2. | "Always Love You" (with Young Thug and Nicki Minaj) |
|
| 4:17 |
3. | "Learn to Fly" (Surfaces featuring Elton John) |
| 3:31 | |
4. | "After All" (with Charlie Puth) |
| Puth | 3:28 |
5. | "Chosen Family" (with Rina Sawayama) |
| Harle | 4:40 |
6. | "The Pink Phantom" (Gorillaz featuring Elton John and 6lack) |
| 4:13 | |
7. | "It's a Sin" (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) |
|
| 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: | 65:32 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
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17. | "Cold Heart" (PS1 remix, with Dua Lipa) |
|
| 2:47 |
Total length: | 68:19 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Merry Christmas" (with Ed Sheeran) |
| Mac | 3:28 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Hold Me Closer" (with Britney Spears) |
|
| 3:22 |
18. | "Merry Christmas" (with Ed Sheeran) |
| Mac | 3:28 |
Total length: | 72:22 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Italy (FIMI) [64] | Gold | 25,000‡ |
Poland (ZPAV) [65] | 2× Platinum | 40,000‡ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [66] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [67] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
This section is missing information about the 2022 reissue.(June 2023) |
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Various | 22 October 2021 | Vinyl | [68] [69] [70] | |
Japan | CD | Universal Music Japan | [71] | |
Brazil | 3 December 2021 | CD | Universal Music Brasil | [72] |
When talking about the collaboration, Elton John tweeted: "When the guys first sent me the song, I just loved it. It was an honour to lend my vocals and some piano." [73] In a statement, Surfaces said: "After a series of Zoom studio sessions, we were able to record together from quarantine. Working with Elton felt like the idea of winning a Grammy. He was so passionate and driven and we couldn’t have wished for a more effortless collaboration." [74] A music video to accompany the release of "Learn to Fly" was released onto YouTube on June 24, 2020. [75] It was made in collaboration with director and illustrator Ivan Dixon, who also provided the visuals for "Bloom", and was produced by Sean Zwan from Studio Showoff. [76]
Pnau is an Australian dance music trio originating from Sydney. The trio, a duo before 2016, consists of the musicians Nick Littlemore, Peter Mayes and Sam Littlemore (production), with the latter joining in 2016. Pnau first gained recognition through their 1999 debut album Sambanova, which later won an ARIA Music Awards for Best Dance Release. Their third album, Pnau (2007), brought them further critical acclaim and success. Pnau is also recognised for a heavily publicised apprenticeship under the musician Elton John, who signed the duo after listening to the Pnau album. Several of Pnau's later projects have had John's involvement, such as the album Soft Universe and an album of Pnau recreations of Elton John's hits called Good Morning to the Night.
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"Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" is a song by English singer and songwriter Elton John and English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa from the former's 32nd studio album, The Lockdown Sessions (2021). It was released on 13 August 2021 as the lead single from the album for digital download and streaming in various countries by EMI and Mercury. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, the collaboration between the artists was a testament to their friendship, which was established in November 2020. The song is a medley of four songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, as well as Andrew Meecham, Dean Meredith, Nicholas Littlemore, Peter Mayes and Sam Littlemore, with the production completed by the latter three as part of the dance music group Pnau. Interpolating John's songs "Rocket Man" (1972), "Kiss the Bride" (1983), "Sacrifice" (1989) and "Where's the Shoorah?" (1976), the remix is an upbeat contemporary synth-pop, dance, dance-pop and pop song describing the decline of a relationship.
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