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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: MCA
Salesrank: 266656
Released: May 19, 1992 |
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| Used Price: $23.99 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Leather Jackets Track Listing:
1. Leather Jackets
2. Hoop of Fire
3. Don't Trust That Woman
4. Go It Alone
5. Gypsy Heart
6. Slow Rivers
7. Heartache All over the World
8. Angeline
9. Memory of Love
10. Paris
11. I Fall Apart
Leather Jackets Reviews:
Not one of his best albums 
2009-09-09 - This is definitly one of Elton John's worst albums. It's not horrible and there are good pop songs on here, but he has had much better album. I believe this album and Ice on Fire lacked good vocals and piano. It is too dominated by synthesizers and electronics. "Heartache All Over the World" is a good pop song, if you like pop, as is the title track, "Leather Jackets." "Hoop of Fire" and "Gypsy Heart" are the two best slow songs, that include piano. The rest of the songs are hardly worth mentioning.
blast them in the face, Elton classic! 
2009-08-21 - This is Elton funking down and rocking it!
Everything that makes Elton and everything he is known for is on this album!
It doesn't drag one inch. The ballads are strong, melodically and the power chords that we are familiar with Elton are ever-present in one of the best produced albums of his career and this all digital album shows it all off!!!
Yes, there are synths, so what? Are you saying down with synths?
Pink Floyd, Vangelis, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer used synths pre-dominantely before Elton and wow, what amazing company!
Taupin's simpler but well-versed lyrics like in many classic rock songs and in blues fit Elton's energetic creative melodic creations. There is even a song co-written by Cher which really rocks, the rest is all Elton and Taupin with one more exception from Osborne who became a familiar presence in Elton's career in the eighties.
If you want to rock and move your body and soul with the best of them, buy this fantastic album!
I know of what I speak...I own all of Elton John's albums! This one is up there and if it takes numerous listenings to get the charm of it...so be it.
It only took me one listen...
In the first two songs I was hooked and wasn't let down by the end!
A few nuggets in a midst of dated 80's synth pop 
2009-02-05 - In 1985, Elton reunited with Gus Dudgeon, the producer who had helmed Elton's classic 70's period, from the "Elton John" album up through "Blue Moves". However, the "Ice on Fire" album was hardly a return to EJ's classic piano based sound. Rather, Dudgeon tried to update the sound by smothering the songs in synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines that a lot of people were using then. The result was pretty cheesey, despite a couple of hits. Just as importantly, Elton and Bernie Taupin's songwriting had hit the pits, coming up with some of the worst songs they ever wrote.
This followup album continues in the same direction, with some equally dire results, despite better lyrics from Taupin. There are more lame attempts at dance tracks with "Don't Trust That Woman" (bad lyrics by Cher, of all people) and "Go It Alone" (a clone of the last album's "Act of War"). Over half of the album consists of ballads. The overdone synths make songs like "Memory of Love" (lyrics by late 70's/early 80's collaborator Gary Osborne), "Gypsy Heart", and the pleasant but unmemorable trifle "Paris" (one of the few songs here that were performed live) sound really tacky.
Unlike most people (including Elton himself), I do think there are a few decent songs here that are undermined by Dudgeon's work. The title track and the non-hit single "Heartache All Over the World" are upbeat, catchy numbers, with some really good harmony vocals in the latter. It would have been better to hear Elton pounding on the piano instead of a Yamaha synth, however.
When Elton turns the synths way down in a couple of cases, it also improves things. "Slow Rivers" is the best ballad here, with a good duet vocal with Cliff Richard, real strings from another old buddy, James Newton-Howard, and actual audible Elton acoustic piano. Finally, "Angeline" is a bluesy number that has Elton playing a lone synth while Queen's bassist and drummer play a lock-step rhythm. Another very fun number, despite some appallingly sexist lyrics from Taupin and backing vocalist Alan Carvell.
This album came at the end of Elton's deteriorated relationship with Geffen Records. Geffen wasn't inclined to promote it, it bombed, and Elton has said he should have never released it. Even so, I don't think it's nearly as bad as the last one or his excursions into black music ("The Thom Bell Sessions", "Duets" or the catastrophic "Victim of Love").
Still, this is definitely a low priority for Elton fans. Unless you want every single song ever recorded by the man, download "Leather Jackets", "Heartache..", "Angeline" and "Slow Rivers", and forget about the rest.
A very good album - unfairly bashed 
2008-04-08 - I see these reviews bashing this album so hard and really, it is not warranted. It is one thing to hate an album, but really out of the 11 tracks are you going to tell me there aren't some very good songs on it? Before I go further, it is true that EJ dislikes the album and considers it his worst, mainly because he doesn't remember the sessions and was in very bad shape at the time. But just because he thinks it's the worst, doesn't mean fans should take that and make that their judgement. I am a big-time Elton fan. People who call this the worst....do you even own "21 at 33" or "The Fox"? This album is better than those 2 and I'll tell you, in terms of his 80s albums, I'd say Too Low For Zero is best. I think Breaking Hearts is #2 and yes, Leather Jackets is 3rd. I'd put "Sleeping With The Past" as #2 but I think it was released in '90....not sure...phenomenal album, that one has no clunkers). Anyway, you are going to tell me Ice On Fire, The Fox, 21 At 33, Jump Up and even Reg Strikes back are better? Those albums are so inconsistent. Each has perhaps 2 or 3 great tracks and the rest to me, sounds like filler. Leather Jackets is a pretty consistent album. And the majority of the tracks have something that many of the aforementioned albums have - melody. "Hoop Of Fire", "Slow Rivers", "Memory Of Love" and "I Fall Apart" - all very good ballads. "Paris" is also good. Then you have the mid/uptempo songs. The title track, sure it's cheesy as hell, but it's so catchy and musically it's rather complex. I think the hook is great on it. The only song I truly dislike was the single - "Heartache All Over The World". I think that's pretty poor...below average. A curious choice for a single. Give this album a chance. I've seen this thing go on ebay for outrageous prices. For $9.99 get the mp3s off Amazon, they are very high quality at 256 kbps. Listen to it a couple of times, then make your decision. I have a feeling many will not be disappointed. And for the record, this album is better than the so called "classic years" albums, "Rock Of The Westies" and "Caribou". Sorry folks, gotta tell it like it is.
Bad
2007-08-29 - This is one of Eltons worst albums, produced at a low point in his private life. Worse still; this is the low point in the way Eltons albums were produced throughout the 80's and to a lesser degree the 90's. The album is full of credits like "Synth Sequences", GS-1, DX7 etc. As as a result the album sounds awful - all the bad things about 80's music are evident on this album.
So why 2 stars and not 1 then? Well I'll tell you why, because there are some good songs buried behind the monstrous production. Despite his drug and alcohol problems at the time these are still Elton John songs. However even on most average Elton albums you'll normally find one classic track - not this album I'm afraid.
So my recommendation is don't buy it.
