Ice on Fire by Elton John

Ice on Fire, Elton John's nineteenth studio album, came out on 4 November 1985, on Geffen in North America and Rocket elsewhere, and it's the sound of a star shaking things up. He wanted a new sound, so he fired Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson and brought in rotating crews of session players, including Fred Mandel, David Paton and Charlie Morgan, plus guests Sister Sledge, George Michael and members of Queen. Gus Dudgeon produced, his first Elton album since Blue Moves in 1976, with sessions at The Sol in Cookham, Berkshire.

Out go the old pop-rock trappings, in come soul and R&B shadings, gleaming synths and electronic drums. Bernie Taupin's lyrics look outward: war in "Cry to Heaven", dying working-class towns in "This Town", and the Cold War in "Nikita", which went top 10 in the US and UK. The album hit number three in Britain but stalled at number 48 in America, and reviews were mixed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.