Word: songs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...king of the outrageous has his farewell on the album. The last song, "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance)" is an all-out exhortation to "move that muscle and shake that fat," and it works. Elton brings in piano, bass, drums, slide guitar, electric guitar, synthesizers, congas, strings, and the Cornerstone Institutional Baptist and Southern Californian Community Choir, to join him in an assault on absolute boogie. The music doesn't really go anywhere, but it's fun while it lasts...
Without a doubt, the best song on the album is "Short People," which has been getting a lot of air time on the radio lately. It's also the first song on the record and sets a standard that most of the other cuts can't compete with. Newman has some great insights about short people and communicates them with his own balanced view. His first lines...
...simple, repetitive music doesn't work when the lyrics are lacking. The title song, "Little Criminals," carries a very simple tune and a very simple story about a junkie who proposes to rob a gas station...
Those lyrics might have been able to make it with another tune but, paired with incessant piano chords, the song falls flat...
...Texas Girl at the Funeral of her Father" is the only lament on the album. Newman pulls it off pretty well, despite the cheesy beginning, complete with violins. This song stands out because it is much slower than most of the other songs on the album and because the words and the music go together well...