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Who Believes In Angels? is a ten-track collaborative album by Elton John and Brandi Carlile, released April 4, 2025. Below is the standard-edition track order, with each song’s backstory attributed to the artists who shared it and a critical ranking based on songwriting, vocal interplay, emotional impact, and its place on the album. The ranking is opinion, not an official ordering.
What kind of album is Who Believes In Angels??
This is not a guest appearance by Carlile on a John solo record, or a side project separate from either artist’s work. The pair described it as a full collaboration: Carlile said, “This is not a side-project. This is Elton’s next album, and this is my next album.” John called it the album he wanted to make after retiring from touring. Andrew Watt produced it, while John, Carlile, Watt, and lyricist Bernie Taupin contributed to the writing.
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Recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles between mid-October and early November 2023, the album was written and recorded over 20 days, according to John’s official materials. Its ten songs move between piano-led ballads, rock energy, and close vocal interplay. AP music reporter Maria Sherman observed that the two artists trade control, with Carlile’s voice often emerging as the most prominent. The album was released April 4, 2025, through Island EMI/EMI. John’s song-by-song feature and Sherman’s Associated Press review offer complementary perspectives: the artists’ own accounts of the songs and an independent critical view.
John’s official site reported on April 11, 2025, that the album had become his tenth UK number-one album and Carlile’s first UK number one. That is a dated UK chart milestone, not a statement of its current chart position.
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- Written and recorded over 20 days, `Who Believes In Angels?' is a collaborative studio album between Elton John and Brandi Carlile
Every song on Who Believes In Angels?, ranked
The sequence below follows the standard edition. The ranking weighs how distinctive each song feels, how effectively the voices and arrangement serve its idea, and how much it resonates within the album—not chart performance or an official verdict.
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“When This Old World Is Done With Me”
The album’s most affecting finish is also its most exposed moment. Carlile says Taupin sent the lyric; John recalls becoming emotional while composing it and recording the piano and vocal live in one take the following day. That directness gives the song a sense of arrival rather than a grand finale built for effect. Sherman calls it a “peak-John piano ballad,” and it earns the top spot for turning the album’s reflective streak into its clearest emotional statement.
Rank #2
Who Believes In Angels?- Imported CD
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“Who Believes In Angels?”
The title track is the album’s strongest meeting point between the two singers: a power ballad that gives their shared affection room to carry the song. John describes it as being about the pair’s connection; Carlile says its lyrics reveal who they are and describe their relationship. Sherman also singles it out as the clearest example of the album’s power-ballad mode. It ranks just below the closer because its scale is more familiar, even as the duet gives it a personal center.
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“Little Richard’s Bible”
This track gives the album an early jolt of character and makes clear that John is not simply accompanying Carlile. The two artists trade the lead across the record, and Sherman points to this song as the moment that establishes John’s presence after the opener initially suggests a more Carlile-led record. Carlile frames the song around Little Richard’s struggle with accepting his sexuality and his legacy as “the architect of rock and roll.” John recalls that the song happened to be mixed on Little Richard’s birthday. Its subject and shifting vocal balance make it one of the album’s most memorable turns.
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“Never Too Late”
Built around the possibility of change, this song carries the album’s most explicit message of starting again. Carlile says she wanted to write about John resisting the idea that aging closes off new beginnings; John describes the song as being about change and finding peace later in life. He put the idea plainly: “It’s never too late to change anything if you have the will, willingness, and the humility to try and admit that you’re wrong and do something – start again.” The song began as the title song for the 2024 documentary Elton John: Never Too Late and was shortlisted for the 2025 Oscars, but did not win.
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“Swing For The Fences”
The album’s most openly exuberant song turns Carlile’s original idea—an anthem for young LGBTQIA+ people, with queer people across generations—into a vocal showcase. John says he wanted an energetic sound and encouraged Carlile to stretch; he contributes harmonies while she leads. That arrangement fits the song’s expansive purpose and brings welcome lift to the sequence.
Rank #4
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“The Rose Of Laura Nyro”
The record began to take shape around this Taupin song honoring Laura Nyro, an artist John and Taupin admired. John has credited Nyro’s unconventional structures—including changes of pace and codas—as an influence. Carlile says she worked with Taupin on diction and wording. The result makes an apt opening statement: rather than settle into a predictable duet format, it announces an album interested in contrast and movement.
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“You Without Me”
Carlile connects the song to the changing relationship with her oldest daughter as the child grew up. John says the feeling resonated with his own experience of his elder son leaving for boarding school. The subject gives the song a quiet emotional weight: a parent’s love has to make room for a child’s independence. Its personal detail is moving without needing to be treated as anything beyond the experiences the artists have chosen to share.
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“Someone To Belong To”
Carlile says she wrote this song for David Furnish, imagining it from John’s perspective and drawing on their partnership. Sherman describes it as a midtempo, optimistic duet. Its warmth adds another perspective on connection to an album already preoccupied with relationships, though it feels less distinctive than the songs higher in the ranking.
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“A Little Light”
John and Carlile link the song’s beginnings to a conversation prompted by the Israel-Gaza war. Carlile says she wrote about helping one another and continuing to make art; Sherman characterizes it as a rallying cry for bringing people together. The song’s appeal lies in that stated impulse toward solidarity, without turning the artists’ comments into a broader political claim.
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“The River Man”
The track began with a guitar riff Andrew Watt had written when he was 16; John later developed it at the piano. That route from a teenage guitar idea to John’s piano-led contribution gives the song a collaborative origin, but it leaves a less vivid impression than the album’s strongest vocal and melodic statements. It still helps the record move between its larger emotional peaks.
Who sings lead on the album?
There is no single lead singer for all ten tracks. John and Carlile alternate and share the foreground, while some songs clearly give one artist a more defined lead: Carlile leads “Swing For The Fences,” with John on harmonies; elsewhere, their voices meet in duets or pass control back and forth. Sherman notes that Carlile often stands out vocally, but the shifting balance is part of the album’s collaborative design rather than a fixed division of roles.
CD and vinyl editions
The official standard CD listing describes a tri-color disc and a 24-page booklet with liner notes, lyrics, and studio photos. The official limited-edition tri-color LP listing describes a gatefold sleeve and a 16-page booklet with lyrics and studio photos. Stock changes: the LP listing showed sold out when accessed, so that status should not be taken as a current availability guarantee.
Quick Recap
- Elton John official store: standard CD
- Brandi Carlile official store: limited-edition tri-color vinyl
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
