Having come together on 2024’s single, ‘Never Too Late’, Elton John and Brandi Carlile announced in February that a full collaborative album was on the way. The result, Who Believes In Angels?, is big-hearted, soaring, and generous in a way that classic Elton John records – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Tumbleweed Connection – also were.

Several of the songs pay direct tribute to the musical giants who inspired both John and Carlile, such as ‘The Rose Of Laura Nyro’ and ‘Little Richard’s Bible’, while others are less direct, though ‘The River Man’, which owes a lot to Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’.

‘Swing For The Fences’, meanwhile, is one of the most assured pop tunes Elton John has ever written. Lively, anthemic and slickly produced, it’s a fine example of how he can continue to command the airwaves even into his late seventies.

‘You Without Me’, sung entirely by Carlile, is probably the only sub-par number. Otherwise, this is a real winner.

8/10

Out now