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List Price: $13.98 | | Label: Island
Salesrank: 59592
Released: September 23, 1997 |
| Our Price: $0.62 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Big Picture Track Listing:
1. Long Way from Happiness
2. Live Like Horses
3. End Will Come
4. If the River Can Bend
5. Love's Got a Lot to Answer For
6. Something About the Way You Look Tonight
7. Big Picture
8. Recover Your Soul
9. January
10. I Can't Steer My Heart Clear of You
11. Wicked Dreams
Editorial Review:
Australian Exclusive Tour Edition. Features a Limited Edition Slipcase.
Big Picture Reviews:
Big Picture 
2009-01-31 - Big Picture being Elton John's 1997 release and his 26th studio contained such hits as "Something About The Way You Look Tonight", "Recover Your Soul" and "If The River Can Bend". The booklet is a mixed bag with a strange cover, but with lyrics that are easy to read and also a list of whom plays what on the album. 3/5.
Mature composers DO DELIVER!!!!! 
2008-10-07 - It's unlikely that a mature composer, even one as great as EJ, can make such an excellent album.
But this is truly inspired stuff, not a rehashing of a well-known musical language.
And if it doesn't hit you immediately, keep listening. The reward is worthy.
The Big Over Produced Picture 
2008-09-03 - The Big Picture for me was as a step down from the achievements of the previous release, Made In England. The main problem is the over production by Chris Thomas who gives these songs a dense, wall of sound production that drains the melodies dry. The songs themselves however are not that bad. In fact, it's a shame that several didn't escape to surface on a future album. Opening with Long Way From Hapiness, it's a fitting opener in lieu of Elton's recent personal tragedies, the death of Princess Diana and his good friend, Gianni Versace - though the album was recorded prior to those events in the summer of 1997.
Taupin returns for another round of lyrics that are his least ambitious in recent memory. Partly based on a loose concept of writing big old time ballads that the likes of Sinatra would sing, the album never quites hits it mark. Most are too simplistic and lack his unique narrative to tell what amounts to basic love stories. Love's Got A Lot To Answer For is perhaps the best example of this: "love's got a lot to answer for, I just can't sleep with this feeling anymore".
Others like, Something About The Way You Look Tonight, which appears to be a grand attempt at a classic ballad, only succeeds due to Elton's powerful delivery. The melody and lyric however are routine at best.
And that's the problem with the rest. Live Like Horses is a powerful ballad about the death of Taupin's father but is mired by an over use of synthesizers and unnecessary effects (if you ever heard this solo, it's a great song). Meanwhile, The End Will Come and I Can't Steer My Heart Clear of You simply don't go anywhere. Most of these songs are slow to mid-tempo with the only real upbeat song being the closer Wicked Dreams. That one, while probably the most interesting lyric, simply never excels into what could have been a great rock song. It's just simmers, never boils.
But all is not lost here. If The River Can Bend is a wonderful gospel rave-up with a fantastic piano solo. January has a melody that changes and shifts dramatically along side one of Taupin's most romantic lyrics. The title track also has some nice moments, including a wonderful opening of just Elton and piano.
As you can see, I struggle with Elton's albums where I'm torn. I just can't outright not like it because there are some great songs here and Elton sings with great passion throughout.
My biggest complaint is the production. It would make a great bookend to The One, another over produced album. But this was five years since The One and Chris Thomas brought nothing new to the table for Elton and these songs. Elton and Thomas had disagreements during the recording according to a recent biography by David Buckley and Taupin complained that the album sounded cold and too technical.
The Big Picture falls squarely in the middle of pack of Elton's albums. And for me, that's frustrating.
Best Tracks: Live Like Horses, If The River Can Bend, January, The Big Picture and Something About The Way You Look Tonight.
A Missing Picture 
2008-02-15 - When it came to the 90's for Elton John, he returned to the roots of making dominant albums. After his recovery from his addictions to drugs and alcoholism, he made some of the best music that had shown in years. With the success of albums like The One from 1992 and the 1995 overlooked masterpiece Made In England, which returned him to the classic roots of 70's albums. But, for the following few years, he had dealt a double whammy of blows which coincided with the deaths of his friends Gianni Versace and Princess Diana. It showed into what made his follow-up to Made In England a much more subdued but deeply creative album that showed in the reflection.
Elton John's 1997 album The Big Picture doesn't completely showcase a dominance that was shown in his music from earlier times. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean the album is medicore. The album does include some really good songs, but all of them were mainly overshadowed by the #1 smash, Something About The Way You Look Tonight, which was a part of the Candle In The Wind 1997 single to show in memory of Princess Diana's death. Regardless, this record was all done on memory of Gianni Versace. Other than Something About The Way You Look Tonight, there are a lot of surprising songs here like the Gospel-influenced If The River Can Bend, the overlooked Recover Your Soul, and slow mid-tempo somberness of songs like the opening track Long Way From Happiness to the depths of Live Like Horses, all the way to the essence of beginnings as detailed in January.
All in all, The Big Picture isn't a bad album for die hard Elton John fans and has some meaningful songs, but it doesn't do enough to bring in newcomers to Elton John's music. Still, it is a pretty good album that says so much from the heart and that is really the actual big picture.
Songs: B-
Price: B
Mastering: C+
Overall: B-
Wonderful
2008-01-27 - One of the best albums of Elton John. I recommend to all of his fans!!You should have this piece in your archive.. Do not hesitate to buy.. You can trust me as an excellent music lover of such pieces..
