Consumer Guide Album

Leo Sayer: Another Year [Warner Bros., 1975]
Leo sounds so much like Elton this time that I thought I'd finally figured him out, for like Numero Uno he seems very aware that people buy hooks, not words, belting/crooning every lyric with the same synthetic intensity regardless of its worth. The switch to a social realist tack here would then be explained by the presence of new songwriting collaborator Frank Farrell. My problem: Sayer writes the words, Farrell the melodies. Sayer's problem: we love Elton for his megalomania, and megalomania is something you have to earn. B-