Reworking Elton's catalogue between 1970 and 1976 is no mean feat. It's a period which saw him release ten albums that featured the likes of 'Your Song' and signature hit 'Rocket Man'. Pnau have done well to avoid the classics and opt mostly for lesser-known songs, though you only need listen to the Balearic-disco opener 'Good Morning to the Night' - which includes elements of 'Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters' among seven other tracks - to realise they've far from taken the easy path.
Each number contains slivers of up to nine songs and refashions them almost to beyond recognition. 'Sad' stitches together four tracks including the backing vocal from 'Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word' to form a wistful dancefloor number with a vintage summer quality, 'Black Icy Stare is a brilliant piece of bouncy retro-funk, while 'Telegraph to the Afterlife' wanders into slo-mo psychedelia with wonderfully eerie results.
The experimenting reaches its most complex on 'Phoenix', a nine-track megamix which, despite the painstaking cutting and blending involved, includes a chorus that wouldn't sound out of place in the upper echelons of today's charts. The result not only succeeds in hauling some of Elton's best back into relevancy, but also works as a spectacular reimagining of those that deserved more first time out.
Tracks to download: 'Good Morning to the Night', 'Black Icy Stare', 'Telegraph to the Afterlife'
If you like this, you'll like: Empire of the Sun, Sound of Arrows, Penguin Prison
Watch the 'Sad' music video below:
