Elton John and Brandi Carlile's new album is a glorious return to his bombastic, melodious 1970s pomp
Before Elton John has even sung a note on his 37 th studio album, Who Believes in Angels?, his fans' spirits will be soaring. The slow building two-minute prelude to opening track, The Rose of Laura Nyro, is replete with warm analogue synth and organ sounds that explode into a flighty blast of lead guitar, elegantly spaced drums and thick harmonies, before pulling back for beautifully voiced piano chords. My first thought was, 'Hello Yellow Brick Road!', as I revelled in echoes of that classic 1973 double album's sensational opening Funeral for a Friend.
The song gets better with each unfolding verse and chorus, a sprawling Elton epic with the tone of an emotional power ballad and the energetic drive of a bombastic mid-tempo rocker. Gloriously overloaded lyrics celebrating an unjustly forgotten queer singer-songwriter should probably come with footnotes. Who wants to hear Elton digging out melody and meaning from baroque refrains such as 'Like Virginian to the lighthouse / See the songbirds in their cages / The rose of Laura Nyro / Shed its petal on the pages'? This fan certainly does. And when you think it can't get any better, the song goes up another gear, with Elton's piano barrelling into a roaring gospel-tinged coda whilst he shares extemporised vocal interjections with his sensational duet partner Brandi Carlile.
Although not well known in the UK, the 43-year-old Carlile is acclaimed as one of the finest American singer-songwriters of her generation, with a showstopping voice comparable to Emmylou Harris singing Roy Orbison. As a fellow outspoken gay artist, she has been a close friend of Elton's for decades, and the 78-year-old superstar seems to have approached this post-retirement collaborative project as a chance to push Carlile's talents out to the rest of the world.
But the resulting album is very much Brandi paying homage to Elton, not vice versa. She is clearly a big fan (Carlile used to perform Elton songs in full costume at talent shows as a child), and the ambitious song structures, wonderfully convoluted lyrics and luxurious analogue arrangements all evoke Elton in his 1970's pomp.
Producer Andrew Watt started out working with Justin Bieber but has become the go-to guy for putting modern sonic bite into vintage rockers, working with Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and the Rolling Stones. He has assembled a phenomenal band including two members of Red Hot Chilli Peppers (drummer Chad Smith and keyboardist / guitarist Josh Klinghoffer) with Pino Palladino on bass. Elton's wingman Bernie Taupin was in the studio to bring his distinctive poetic flavour to the John / Carlile / Watt songwriting partnership.
Carlile's greatest contribution, I would respectfully suggest, was to put a rocket up the Rocket Man's posterior. Her voice in tight duet with Elton's restores that hot, high falsetto dimension to his still potent baritone. On the incredible title track, Carlile leads the way, yet it still sounds like an Elton song, partly due to the prominence of his flowery yet robust piano style, the tone of his underpinning voice, and the way his songs melodiously seduce you then suddenly blast off for the stars.
This is a set of absolute bangers including a barrel-house Crocodile Rock romp through Little Richard's Bible, the twisty Americana flavoured fantasia of Riverman and a moving Elton solo finale on When This Old World Is Done Me. On such evidence, we're not done with him yet, nor he with us.
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