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.

Elton John in the 2000s

Elton John has had a long and successful career, especially considering the quality of his output throughout the eighties and nineties. He has toured frequently and puts on a good show, usually heavy on his seventies hits.

Between Elton John 1970 and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy 1975, Elton made nine records that were either darn good or great. Then, around 1975-1976, quality dropped off. Rock of the Westies was pretty bad, and Blue Moves could have been a decent single disc, but didn't impress as a double album. I liked it, but even I have had to reexamine my opinion, and it isn't the last great one I once thought it was. But I still love side three.

Between A Single Man 1978 and The Big Picture 1997, Elton made fourteen unsatisfying records. There were almost always one or two keepers, but as albums, it was a very rough period, and it lasted 20 years. A few of them showed potential, and several were just awful.

Then in 2001 came Songs From The West Coast. A stellar return to form, and sounding similar to his seventies greats, it contained a whole bunch of great songs in I Want Love, This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore, Original Sin, Dark Diamond, Birds, Love Her Like Me, and Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes. You could listen to the whole thing.

Peachtree Road 2004 came very close to matching Songs From The West Coast, with Weight of the World, Answer In The Sky, All That I'm Allowed, and Turn The Lights Out When You Leave.

The sequel to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, The Captain and the Kid 2006 kept the quality high, and remarkably almost matched the original in it's ability to write Bernie Taupin's and Elton John's musical biography.

2010 saw the release of The Union with Leon Russell. The two record set, unfortunately produced by T-Bone Burnett, was light on great songs, and had a thick, overly layered, sound that didn't help. Like so many other two-record affairs, it would have been a really fine single disc.

The Diving Board 2013 saw T-Bone Burnett return to the producer's chair, but instead of the big production and millions of players on The Union, most of the record is recorded by piano, bass and drums trio, with occasional additional keyboards. A Town Called Jubilee, Mexican Vacation, The Ballad of Blind Tom, and Can't Stay Alone Tonight were all good, and so was most of the rest.

Finally, in 2016, Elton gave us Wonderful Crazy Night. Strong songs include In The Name of You, Tambourine, Blue Wonderful, Looking Up, and the title track. T-Bone Burnett stays out of the way for a record featuring the touring band and a bunch of good songs. Again, you can listen to the whole thing without needing to fast forward. Pretty amazing after making records for something like fifty years.

I'll skip the Pnau remix album Good Morning to the Night 2012 (it's remixes, and it sold well), the duets record The Lockdown Sessions 2021 (has anyone made a great duets record?) and Regimental Sgt. Zippo 2021 (recorded in 1967 before even Empty Sky, and never released, for good reason).

Given the dearth of good records for some twenty years, Elton John has made a miraculous recovery in this century. If you liked his early work and wrote him off somewhere in the eighties, you should give him another shot. The last twenty years have been darn good for Elton John, and his fans. 

Elton John Blue Moves 1976

I've had time to overthink this one. Months ago I began writing the entry in my head, feeling that Blue Moves was one of Elton's lost classics that needed reconsideration. I've gone back to the record many times, and I do like it, but it seems I usually only go back to side three, and I'd been perhaps a bit too generous with the rest of it.

All this prompted me to think about Elton John's best records. I tend to think everything between Elton John 1970 and Blue Moves 1976 was great. But Caribou 1974 and Rock Of The Westies 1975 were lousy records carried by their singles, and even Madman Across The Water 1971 is less impressive in hindsight.

So, I'd say that the five best Elton John albums are: Tumbleweed Connection 1970, 17-11-70 1971 (11-17-70 in the US), Honky Chateau 1972, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy 1975, and Songs From The West Coast 2001. 

So, Blue Moves. The album starts with Your Starter For..., a Caleb Quaye instrumental that is fine, really, and very short. Then Tonight, a sad ballad of troubled love, features a symphony orchestra, and a strong lyric from Bernie Taupin (something that doesn't happen enough on this record). One Horse Town features a rocking arrangement that almost saves it, and Chameleon benefits from a chorus featuring Beach-Boys styled vocals courtesy of Bruce Johnston and Toni Tennille.  The funky backbeat and gospel choir help with Boogie Pilgrim, but it's pretty vapid. Graham Nash and David Crosby provide vocal support on the sweet, tender ballad Cage The Songbird. Crazy Water is upbeat and is funkified by a strong arrangement. Bernie writes a good story for Shoulder Holster, and the Brecker Brother's horns assist, but it's not a great one by any stretch.

Side three is where I return frequently, opening with Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. Everything about the song works, Bernie's lyric, Elton's sympathetic melody, Ray Cooper's vibes, the lush strings. Out Of The Blue follows, and it's a nice rocking instrumental that sounds like it grew out from a band jam. Between Seventeen And Twenty is another killer ballad with all the elements: words, music, execution. Crosby and Nash help again on The Wide-Eyed And Laughing, but they don't save it. Someone's Final Song is a pretty suicide ballad with a sad topic. On the last side, only If There's A God Up In Heaven with it's funk, and the fading rock star of ballad Idol are much to hear. Where's The Shoorah?, Theme From A Non-Existent T.V. Series, and Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!) are all throwaways that should have been left off.

With some editing, and maybe one or two more up-tempo numbers, it could have been solid. It would have been a respected record as a single LP release, although still too ballad-heavy. It is not the lost classic I had been thinking it was, but I still love side three.

Elton John 17-11-70+ 2017

So on the tenth annual Record Store Day, Saturday April 22, 2017, they released this set in it's complete form, a mere forty-seven years after it was recorded.

For Record Store Day this year, Elton lent his support as a sort of celebrity spokesman, doing a video about vinyl, and coupling that with the release of this vinyl edition of the complete radio broadcast from that historic date in 1970.

They pressed far more than even the Record Store Day crowd could eat up, so I'm assuming the record should be widely available. And if you appreciated the original, then this might interest you.

The original performance, broadcast on New York radio, included 13 songs, and they are all here. The original vinyl release featured six songs, most of them from the rocking second half of the set. The songs left off the original include the soft-rock of Amoreena (included as a bonus track on the 1995 CD version), I Need You To Turn To, Your Song, Country Comfort, Border Song, Indian Sunset, and My Father's Gun.

So most of the ballads he performed earlier in the set. OK, nobody really needs to hear Your Song again, I get that. But the vitriol, held in check by English manners alone, of Indian Sunset, an homage to native Americans, is stunning. My Father's Gun is another wonderful song from Bernie Taupin's Americana pen, as is Country Comfort. 

It is hard to argue with the original song selection, and by some accounts that means that the new material here is something less than the original record. I can't refute that, and still I find value and reward in this release. Here's the thing: the original record is just plain flat-out killer. The stuff they left off makes sense in the context of the original production, but it also helps to illuminate the point in time for this band, and Elton, that was a fleeting moment of perfect rock and roll piano trio performance.

If I can nit-pick at all, I would have liked to see this record sequenced as the original performance, What we get is the original release on record one, and the rest on record two. That's OK I suppose, but if you're going to release the whole show, why not present it as it was performed (although there seems to be some dispute over the actual set list).

All in all, a wonderful find on Record Store Day this year, and a real treat for anyone that acknowledges the quality of Elton's early work. The trio format allowed for some serious rocking from the whole band (Dee Murray is on fire). A young man is a strong man, indeed.

Elton John 17-11-70 1971

I've pulled this little gem out an unusual number of times in the recent past. Unique in Elton John's output, it was recorded live in a studio with a small audience for radio broadcast, and includes only the core band of John, Dee Murray (bass) and Nigel Olssen (drums).

It is the interplay of this tight outfit, and Elton's rocking piano, that make the record so special. Elton still had plenty to prove at this point. His songwriting was never a question, but this was his first American tour, and the band plays like it is now or never. Murray's bass lines are all over the place, almost a bass/lead instrument, and Olssen's drumming is equally wild and ferocious. And Elton plays like a man simultaneously possessed by Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Piano can rock. Here's all the proof you need.

Take Me To The Pilot starts things off in fine form, followed by Honky Tonk Woman, on which the trio sings some knock-out harmonies, and John rips the piano to shreds. The slow burner Sixty Years On turns incendiary, and Can I Put You On keeps the rocking front and center. Side two features an eighteen-minute Burn Down The Mission, that includes bits of Arthur Crudup's My Baby Left Me and The Beatles Get Back.

Elton never did this same thing again, and a little over a year later, guitarist Davey Johnstone was a full-time band member. John's live performances became more sophisticated, but never really recaptured the raw power of this dynamic trio.   

Elton John / Leon Russell The Union 2010

I've been waiting patiently for this release for several months now. Three reasons: Elton John has been making some great records in the last ten years, his best since the seventies; Leon Russell made some great records a long time ago, and the two of them together sounded like an interesting idea; It was to be released on vinyl, and even though that shouldn't matter, it does.

Elton's liner notes tell a sweet story of how the record came to be, and I'm glad for Leon that Elton's a generous soul, because I suspect this record will change Leon's tax bracket this year.

There are, though, several less than perfect aspects to the record. T-bone Burnett produces, and while Burnett has a way with country/acoustic/roots music recordings, he's definitely not the guy for this job. A steadier pop hand would have worked better. And the sound is often muddy. When there are multiple players and singers, the sound is dark and distant, like Phil Spector from down the hall. Being able to hear both pianos in interplay is only really possible on a few tracks.

But the even greater weakness is the material. Of course, it's a two LP set, with 16 songs in this CD age, and it would have been better as a ten-song affair. That would have made this a much better product right there. Much of what could be omitted are the John/Taupin compositions, because they sound like outtakes from his last three records.

But it is not without its charms.

The opener is Russell's If It Wasn't For Bad. A good start to the record, Leon's voice sounds good, and his piano fills are superb. Eight Hundred Dollar Shoes follows, a slow John/Taupin ballad that features a nice piano duet and a strong lyric from Taupin. Hey Ahab, another John/Taupin write, is a fair mid-tempo rocker that goes on a little too long, although Leon's piano almost saves the day. Gone To Shiloh is a John/Taupin number that hearkens back to Tumbleweed Connection and that record's focus on Civil War America. Neil Young guests, and sings some fine harmonies with Leon.

Hearts Have Turned To Stone, a Russell composition, is a good mid-tempo rocker. Jimmie Rodger's Dream is a rolling country cowboy song, something Elton and Bernie have done a lot before. It's OK. There's No Tomorrow is a co-write between Elton and Leon with a mediocre lyric, that is just plain too slow. The guitar work by Marc Ribot and Robert Randolph just barely keeps it breathing. Monkey Suit is one of those Crocodile Rock/ Saturday Night's Alright bluesy rockers that Elton and Bernie do so well, and it's a keeper. Leon is relegated to back-up vocals, and the pianos are too deep in the mix, but it is still good.

Best Part Of The Day has an honest duet vocal that works, and the lyric is worth hearing, but it is a very very familiar Elton John melody barely reworked. A Dream Come True, written by Elton and Leon, is a rollicking, fast-paced rag, with a sentimental lyric that is a tribute to Elton from Leon. Wonderful pianos on this one also. I Should Have Sent Roses is a Russel/Taupin composed gem. Leon sings his heart out, and benefits from a fine Taupin lyric. When Love Is Dying is another overly familiar John/Taupin melody hung on a big, slow ballad that's just OK.

My Kind Of Hell, another John/Taupin authorship, is a second-rate Taupin lyric attached to a Honky Cat remake that's not bad. Mandalay Again (John/Taupin) is a boring march that is just not up to snuff. Never Too Old (To Hold Somebody) is another painfully slow, dull melody, but there is a tasty vocal arrangement with choir. And finally, Leon comes through at the end with his own In The Hands Of Angels, a beautiful song with just piano, organ, bass and choir, Leon again pays tribute to Elton, and T-bone Burnett. The sparse arrangement is like nothing else on the record, and thank goodness! Everything else sounds too much the same. And that is T-bone Burnett's job.

There are great moments from both Elton and Leon. There are some weaker songs courtesy of Elton mostly. Some of the highs are very much worth hearing. By my count seven excellent tracks, five others that are good, and four that should have never been released.

I'm a little disappointed. It's worth hearing, and you might like it more than I did. Take it out of the library.

Elton John The Captain And The Kid 2006

I was always a sucker for Elton John, and I have grown to love all of his output from 1970-1976. He's also recently made some monumental comeback records like Songs From The West Coast 2001, Peachtree Road 2004, and this most recent one. The Captain And The Kid attempts to pick up where Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy 1975 left off, and remarkably, it mostly succeeds.

I know it's hard to believe, but Elton's currently on a tear. And this one is remarkable in it's continuation of the original 1975 song cycle. Postcards From Richard Nixon and Just Like Noah's Ark are solid mid-tempo rockers, Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way is a love ballad to NYC, Tinderbox recalls Someone Saved My Life Tonight (with a completely different rhythm), And The House Fell Down, I Must Have Heard It On The Wind, and Old 67 are all solid rockers and Elton sounds great. He's clearly inspired by Bernie Taupin's excellent lyrics, and the team sounds as great as ever.

The Blues Never Fade Away is a perfect Elton ballad, with an easy to take personal message, and a hook-heavy chorus. The record closes with The Captain and The Kid, a remarkably twisted rewrite of Captain Fantastic that you can only get away with if you wrote the original.

It's almost as good as the original that inspired it. It's considerably better than anything Elton did during the twenty years between 1978 and 1997, and with the two before it, an amazing return to form from one of the better songwriting duos in rock and roll. If you liked him in the mid seventies, one of these new ones deserves your attention.