Elton John and Bradi Carlile Who Believes In Angels? 2025,

I originally intended to post this along with the previous Irma Thomas and Galactic record as a comparison between two legacy artists both working in tandem with younger artists, but I decided the Irma Thomas deserved it's own feature. More people are going to hear/buy this one, and that's a real shame. In the last 25 years Elton has made five really solid studio records that restored his work to his seventies high standards. This isn't the sixth.

Not that it's all bad. In fact some of it is pretty darn good and some of it is, well, less exciting. If you're a Brandi Carlile fan it will be more exciting than it is to Elton John fans, because it mostly sounds like a Brandi Carlile recording of John/Taupin songs. Carlile performs the acoustic You Without Me essentially solo, while John finishes the record with the fine ballad When This Old World Is Done With Me solo at the piano, and is featured prominently on Little Richard's Bible. The rest of the record is duets sorta. On a few songs Elton and Brandi sing separate verses and then duet the choruses, but on most they duet the entire song. And there's the rub. When they sing together, Elton's voice is swamped in the mix by Brandi's big brassy voice. That's probably on producer Andrew Watt, but it makes Elton a background vocalist for most of the record.

The record opens with homages to Laura Nyro and Little Richard. The Rose of Laura Nyro opens with a too long overblown intro reminiscent of of Funeral For A Friend while Little Richard's Bible is another version of Crocodile Rock that's not bad, and Elton gets to sing it without Carlile drowning him out. The title track twists the piano figure from Amoreena to decent effect, but it's another duet with too much Carlile in the mix. And that's really the story of the whole rest of the record. 

There's a bunch of good songs. The production by Watt is a bit too overblown-big-pop-production on some songs, but it's mostly OK, and the band is talented. Elton's recent records have managed an organic sound that this record eschews for modern glossy pop. I can almost see why the critics have been gushing over it. Almost, but not really.