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List Price: $17.49 | | Label: rocket/Mercury/Universal
Salesrank: 161669
Released: October 25, 1990 |
| Our Price: $10.88 |
| Used Price: $4.76 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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21 at 33 Track Listing:
1. Chasing the Crown
2. Little Jeannie
3. Sartorial Eloquence
4. Two Rooms at the End of the World
5. White Lady White Powder
6. Dear God
7. Never Gonna Fall in Love Again
8. Take Me Back
9. Give Me the Love
Editorial Review:
Canadian pressing of 1980 album for MCA that's out-of-print domestically. Nine tracks including three co-written with Bernie Taupin & the hit, 'Little Jeannie'.
21 at 33 Reviews:
A half-prized return to a light, versatile style 
2007-08-17 - Luis Mejia (son) - the last year of the 70's, Elton John's greatest moment in time, fades away with this bright album, a strong effort. 21 At 33 contains the return of a light, versatile popcraft in Elton's music, assembling simple compositions with a mellow mood. The album's styles differ between a little disco vibe, simple popcraft and elegant soft rock, with its refined, stylish, light, simple and mellow moods dominating the album. 21 At 33 still suffers from the lack of cohersion seen even in later albums, although is up to notice that Elton and Bernie Taupin were temporary splitted, so this is part of the result. The beautiful and charmful compositions are also present in this record. Almost every track fits in a strong way, although a lack of originality is also seen because of this, almost every song possess the same tunes and Daniel style songs, the album mainly spins around Elton's electric piano. Among the tracks there can be seen certain uncompromising styles, like the rock/disco track Chasing The Crown, the light, semi romantic popcraft in the hit song Little Jeannie can also be seen very similarly in later songs like the sazzy Dear God, Never Gonna Fall In Love and Take Me Back, although Take Me Back keeps an acoustic guitar concentration that keeps its slight originality. The beautifuly mellodic Sartorial Eloquence stays with a really classic mood among Elton's past works, specially Caribou, later comes the nauseatic disco in White Lady White Powder, the elegant, electric gitar crafted Two Rooms At The End Of The World, and the enjoyable, light disco mood in the orchestrated song Give Me The Love. Good results also came from the fact of Elton John's friendship with Gary Osbourne. Well, in conclussion this album is a slight, ambitious effort for Elton in trying to comeback with a delightful, mellodic touch, although he passed off a little bit, I'm sure that with the help of Taupin, 21 At 33 would had been a better album.
21 at 33 Elton John 
2006-11-08 - The product was awesome and just as advertised. We are very happy with it.
Fans can never be objective.. 
2006-05-06 - From the OBJECTIVE reviewer...Elton was starting to move away from pop disco with this release and two classic tracks, "Little Jeannie" and "Sartorial Eloquence" are enough to push this otherwise lackluster recording to 3 stars.
a testament to the superior songcraft of Elton John
2006-01-12 - "21 at 33", originally released in 1980, is not usually considered to be one of Elton John's best albums. More precisely, it seems to be viewed as something of a transitional record for Elton following his notorious and commercially disastrous disco album "Victim of Love".
That said, "21 at 33" is an incredibly impressive achievement. Despite the personal problems Elton was going through during this period, including his increasing drug dependency, absolutely none of the songs here fail to display Elton's superior knack for songcraft. In other words, there's simply not a weak song on the disc. And the production, by Elton and Clive Franks, is mostly very tasteful, and the performances are spirited.
Granted, Elton's reliance on other people to write the lyrics for his songs does give him a certain advantage in that he can focus solely on writing the music, and he can also use the lyrics he's been provided with as a vantage point for the type of song he's going to concoct. Bernie Taupin, following his songwriting absence on the previous two albums, returned here, co-writing three of the songs. Gary Osborne was also continuing to co-write songs with Elton, and there are additionally two co-writes from Tom Robinson, and one co-write from Judie Tzuke. The liner notes inform us that all of the songs here were written at the Cote d'Azur in Grasse, France in August of 1979, which inescapably brings to mind the thought that Elton can turn out great song after great song in his sleep--even if these tunes were all written quickly, they all seem carefully thought out musically, and none of them feel merely like album filler.
"Chasing The Crown" is a great, energetic album opener that rocks out quite nicely with super-cool guitar and piano licks. "Little Jeannie" is a supremely melodic ballad with a soaring chorus and an irresistible fade that's based on the instrumental intro. "Sartorial Eloquence" starts off with a lovely sequence of piano chords and again is splendidly melodic with an irresistibly catchy chorus. "Two Rooms At The End Of The World" is a toe-tappingly catchy horn-laden pop-rocker with neatly placed harmony vocals. The neatly-unpredictable "White Lady White Powder" is an extremely well-crafted and catchy uptempo pop-rocker. The 6/8 time "Dear God" is a gently-swaying, arrestingly tuneful ballad. "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" is also a solid ballad with a nice sighing quality to it. "Take Me Back" is a fun, musically upbeat song that shows just how comfortable Elton is a country-western setting. The album ends with the absolutely infectious grooving soft-rocker "Give Me The Love": unbelievably catchy vocal melody; irresistible syncopation; great horn and string arrangements; a really fun, spirited Elton vocal delivery; and great Elton piano fills.
"21 at 33" is an album that you can absolutely play straight through. On the other hand, you might have a hard time doing that due to a temptation to play certain tracks two or three times in a row. With a nice variety to the songs, and so much catchiness, this is a really great and underrated album from Elton, and I really can't fathom how any fan wouldn't love it.
(P.S. Further demonstrating what a roll Elton was on at this time, there are at least a couple songs from the "21 at 33" sessions that didn't make the album. One is the fine ballad "Conquer the Sun" which appeared as a b-side for the "Little Jeannie" single. Another is the irresistibly funky "Lonely Boy" which appeared as a b-side to the single for "Who Wears These Shoes?" in 1984. It would have made this album even sweeter had these two songs been added here as bonus tracks--fans won't regret tracking them down.)
One interesting album 
2005-12-02 - After his 1979 disco Lp,"Victim of Love",I expected something more Eltonish from my beloved EJ.Interestingly,we got a mixed bag boasting gems like love song LITTLE JEANNIE and the confessionals WHITE POWDER and CHASING THE CROWN while also featuring mediocre tunes such as DEAR GOD & NEVER GONNA FALL IN LOVE AGAIN.Elton's voice is at its best,yet there is a sense of tiredness in the performing and in the arrangements.Not a bad album,yet far from a classic.
