Elton John

With the drum roll that kicks Elton John's zillionth record into gear, it's clear he's undergoing some kind of artistic renaissance. Sure, he played rock 'n' roll in the past, and maybe an artist should evolve and do new things and blah blah blah, but this is music that John has always been good at. One listen to "Just like Noah's Ark" allows fans of his '70s material to forget all that Lion King schmaltz. He sounds nothing like the pigeonholed vet he became in the '90s, but rather like the uber-talented singer-songwriter he once was.