In Review: Elton John & Brandi Carlile Who Believes In Angels?, The Waterboys Life, Death And Dennis Hopper
Plus Craig Finn's Always Been, Black Country New Road, and Time! Gentlemen! Pub Rock Rhythm'N'Grooves: Classic Cuts and Rarities 1974-1982.
Elton John & Brandi Carlile—Who Believes In Angels [2025]
The pairing of Elton John and Brandi Carlile is unexpected if not quite surprising. Carlile's music was shaped by the moodiness of John's '70s classics, while Elton is a pop omnivore who can find common ground with almost any other musician. They previously worked together on John's The Lockdown Sessions, a star-studded duets album from 2021 that already feels like a curio, which was enough to plant the seed that flowered into Who Believes In Angels. A through-and-through collaboration—Carlile even wrote lyrics with Bernie Taupin—Who Believes In Angels shies away from the stylized gaiety of Wonderful Crazy Night but also the tasteful, stylized evocation of early '70s Elton that became his stock in trade during the 2000s. Instead, Who Believes In Angels is pitched somewhere between Captain Fantastic and Caribou: it's brassy and shiny, taking the time for the occasional grand ballad. All the nods to the past are deliberate, aided by the hire of Andrew Watt, the producer who has become the classic rock whisperer. Carlile's presence prevents Watt from truly indulging in the retro-revivalism that's Watt's wont; she's too new, too idiosyncratic to be codified. Carlile keeps Who Believes In Angels from drifting toward showtunes, which it threatens to do not only on the ballad "Never Too Late" but the proggy pomp of the opener "The Rose of Laura Nyro." Broadway is part of Elton's DNA, though, so it's appropriate that it's here alongside an explicit nod to Little Richard, ghosts of Tumbleweed Connection, and hard, gilded adult contemporary. With Carlile aboard, John doesn't bother dabbling in dance or tacky trash—when this drifts toward pop, it's in the form of the sparkly jangle of Carlile's "Swing for the Fences"—which lends Who Believes In Angels a stylistic coherence: it's anthemic rock that takes big swings at big emotions and it connects more often than it misses.
The Waterboys—Life, Death, and Dennis Hopper [2025]
There's a certain madness to the very idea of a concept album about the life and times of New Hollywood iconoclast Dennis Hopper that's hard to resist.