- 2025-02-06
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MUSIC
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Elton John & Brandi Carlile Announce New Collaborative Album “Who Believes In Angels?”, Share Title Track
British singer-songwriter Elton John and American singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile have announced their upcoming collaborative album “Who Believes In Angels?” will be released on April 4, 2025.
This marks their third collaboration, following Brandi Carlile's 2009 album “Give Up the Ghost” and Elton John's 2024 documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late”.
The original song “Never Too Late” of the documentary was nominated for Best Original Song at the 97th Academy Awards.
Along with the announcement, they released the title track on February 5, 2025.
“Who Believes In Angels?” was written by Bernie Taupin, Brandi Carlile, Elton John, and Andrew Watt, who also produced the track.
Elton John said of the song, “It's a very powerful song and it builds up to an incredible climax with the chorus. And I think for me how much we love each other is in that song. It moves me every time I hear it and I'm so pleased with the song and the way it's written. I couldn't have done a better melody to her lyrics and that's all you, as a musician, that's all you can do. Brandi's my angel. I really believe that. She's someone I can ring up to in the middle of the night, or ring up whenever I want, and she's there for me. And I think it's vice versa. We just fit together so well.”- Brandi Carlile said, “Elton John in the real world isn't anything like I thought he was when I was a little girl hanging pictures of him on my wall. Elton was generous enough to let me see who he really was. And when I wrote the lyrics to Who Believes in Angels, it was about just really showing everybody who we really are. I feel like it's the story of me and Elton's relationship and what we are to each other. The fact that musically it tapped into a vein of Elton John's writing that is so identifiably and quintessentially Elton...mixed with my lyrics…is the realization of my dreams.”
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The album comprises 10 songs including “Never Too Late”, which Elton John Brandi Carlile recorded with producer Andrew Watt at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles in just 20 days.
Also the album features guest players from Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums, former Red Hot Chili Peppers' Josh Klinghoffer on guitar and Pino Palladino on bass.
Elton John said of the album, “This record was one of the toughest I've ever made, but it was also one of the greatest musical experiences of my life. It has given me a place where I know I can move forward. Who Believes In Angels? feels like going into another era and I'm pushing the door open to come into the future. I have everything I've done behind me, and it's been brilliant, amazing. But this is the new start for me. As far as I'm concerned, this is the start of my career Mark 2.”
Brandi Carlile added, “I'm still reeling from the fact that I got to do it. I think all ships rise with Elton John's standards for songwriting, and it was an incredibly challenging and inspiring environment to work in, everybody throwing in ideas, everybody listening to everybody else's ideas. It felt like a family. The world is a wild place to live in right now. It's hard to find peace and triumph. It's a radical act to seek out joyful and euphoric happenings. And that is what this album represents to me.”
Photo by Peggy Sirota - source : Apple Music
