Elton John Announces New Album 'The Lockdown Sessions' With Eddie Vedder, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, & More
A few weeks ago, Elton John teamed up with Dua Lipa and the Australian producer trio PNAU for a track called “Cold Heart,” which mashed up a bunch of different older John songs together alongside its cast of collaborators. It turns out that was just a prelude to a whole new album called The Lockdown Sessions, on which John worked with a whole bunch of notable names.
In addition to Dua Lipa, The Lockdown Sessions features contributions from Eddie Vedder, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Brandi Carlile, Young Thug and Nicki Minaj, Lil Nas X, Charlie Puth, and more. Also included are previously released collabs with Gorillaz, Miley Cyrus, Rina Sawayama, and Years & Years. There’s also a collaboration with late country legend Glen Campbell, a cover of his track “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.”
Here is John’s statement on the new album:
The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album. But, as the pandemic went on, one‐off projects kept cropping up. 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.
Here’s the tracklist:
01 Elton John & Dua Lipa – “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)”
02 Elton John, Young Thug & Nicki Minaj – “Always Love You”
03 Surfaces Feat. Elton John – “Learn To Fly”
04 Elton John & Charlie Puth – “After All”
05 Rina Sawayama & Elton John – “Chosen Family”
06 Gorillaz Feat. Elton John & 6LACK – “The Pink Phantom”
07 Elton John & Years & Years – “It’s a sin (global reach mix)”
08 Miley Cyrus Feat. WATT, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo & Chad Smith – “Nothing Else Matters”
09 Elton John & SG Lewis – “Orbit”
10 Elton John & Brandi Carlile – “Simple Things”
11 Jimmie Allen & Elton John – “Beauty In The Bones”
12 Lil Nas X Feat. Elton John – “One Of Me”
13 Elton John & Eddie Vedder – “E-Ticket”
14 Elton John & Stevie Wonder – “Finish Line”
15 Elton John & Stevie Nicks – “Stolen Car”
16 Glen Campbell & Elton John – “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”
The Lockdown Sessions is out 10/22 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.