Elton John sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about the impending release of his latest album Wonderful Crazy Night.

He says the LP is upbeat from cover to cover.

"I wanted this record to feel joyous from beginning to end. Even the slow songs are optimistic."

He adds that it's not his natural disposition, but was successful nonetheless.

"I mean, as a pianist, I feel its really hard to write uptempo songs anyway," he said.

"It's much harder than it is to write a slow ballad because the piano is a different chromatic instrument from the guitar, and so you don't tend to write three-chord songs with the piano.

But on this record, because I was in the mood and I knew what I wanted, it came really, really quickly."

Wonderful Crazy Night, Elton's 33rd album, lands February 5.