When This Old World Is Done With Me is his best track in decades. Whether it’s a hit or not is meaningless. It’s perfection.
Russ Turk
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This is a really good one.
I tend to agree with most of what you said here. I really wanted the Elton/Brandi collection of songs to be terrific. I listened to the whole thing (or at least extended pieces of each song. ) I was struck by how exceptionally professional it was. They sound good, they sing great, the production is bright and sparkling—albeit mildly predictable.
The problem is the songs aren’t that great. I think that’s part of the problem with lots and lots of music. It’s available today. The songs just aren’t that good.
Rik Shafer
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Much respect to both of them but after listening to what you considered the best two songs…
I turned it off and undoubtedly won’t listen again.
Sad, but true.
David G.
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Harsh but very true.
Will Eggleston
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“I don’t hear a hit on “Who Believes in Angels?”
Nope.
Alicia Etchison
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I’m that same promo guy. You get maybe 8 seconds then I’m out.
I do like yungblud and DC Fontaines. They pop off. Otherwise I listen to Tex Mex n Latin Music. It’s fun and makes you happy. These days that’s a miracle.
Martin Schwartz
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I had to laugh at your opening line. Speaking as a former rock radio program director, I never met a label promo guy who didn’t think he had golden ears.
Beau Phillips
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New York Tendaberry came out when I was 2, I didn’t hear it until I was 22- it still stands as one of the best, most complete albums I have ever heard.
Dave Richards
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What I love about your posts is that you have a real talent to remind me of why I love music- it’s not the sound, the playing expertise, the popularity, etc., it’s the heart and the emotion. Keep on bringing it brother.
Marty Jogensen
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You said, “I don’t hear a hit on “Who Believes in Angels?’” which means, you thought you would?!
Elton. Legend. Icon. Aside from the Dua “sample”… it’s been more than a decade for a hit. Probably way longer. I can’t bother to google.
Brandi. Astounding vocalist. Damn good writer a la Joni. Hits?
I can’t believe you spent this much time devoted to this non-story.
And yet, it’ll get 8 Grammys nominations and mean nothing. And thanks for telling us “MTV is dead,” again. Has been for 20 years.
Pop music is dead – is the story. Dua, Weeknd, Miley, Lizzo – all tanked lately. Where’s the Gaga push for what’s a GREAT pop album? If you’re really listening – and watching tour sales – only Kylie Minogue, 56, is keeping it alive.
Jerry J. Sharell
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Wow! What a great from the gut read… or should I see important read.
Best,
Robby Vee
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Truthfully I can’t say… ’cause I stopped listening after about three songs. It just wasn’t doing it for me.
I had a listen to ‘When This Old World Is Done With Me’ just now because you mentioned it. Sorry, but for me the vocal sounds as if he’s trying too hard.
I know, it’s easy to criticize. Normally I don’t. I know how hard it is to make something. I love Elton, especially his spirit.
One of the best concerts I ever attended was his gig in the National Stadium in Dublin… just himself and Ray Cooper on percussion. Two hours plus of pure magic.
Barry McCabe
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Just keep telling your truth.
Joe D’Ambrosio
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I agree with you. Overall, I like the album but it’s not something I want to listen to repeatedly. Still, I have much love and respect for Elton and Brandi.
On another note, streaming, have you watched the Black Mirror episode “Eulogy”? Talk about some great storytelling. Paul Giamatti is fantastic!
Regards,
Chris Adams
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Yeah, Bob. Stones album did nothing for me and I really wanted to hear something great. Was puzzled by all the raves at the time. Meanwhile, Steal Wheels, Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon sound better than ever. Go, as they say, figure.
Richard Pachter
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Rhino Bucket!
I signed them to EMI Publishing around 1989. Loved them. Didn’t care that they sounded so much like AC/DC that one reviewer said “You have to hand it to Rhino Bucket. They own every AC/DC album, and they’ve obviously never listened to anything else.”
AC/DC seemed to be creatively dead at the time, so I thought there was a hole in the market. Then around the same time as the debut Rhino Bucket album was released, AC/DC released Razors Edge with Thunderstruck and Money Talks. Ooops …..
Best,
Michael McCarty
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The holy dove that visited BC when she was writing her best songs 20 years ago no longer visits. Now it’s BC™, a business with a philanthropy arm (to offset taxes?) and a winery. Once someone stops waking up in the middle of the night to write down the scripture as it comes to them in flames and instead starts writing for the brand, for the marketing department, for the optics…. We all know what those songs sound like. BC has been comparing herself to Elton John in her live shows for years. This seems like the kind of thing she wanted on her resume. Not exactly divinely inspired.
You mention that it’s a pro album. It’s almost too pro. It’s full of clichés, hackneyed Elton modulations and cadences. It’s self-satisfied. Elton’s voice is autotune-corrected. It’s like watching the Carol King show on broadway rather than listen to Aretha sing Natural Woman.
It’s been said a million times, but it’s hard for very successful artists to put out real hits. Maybe the holy dove prefers to visit the hungry, the nameless, the seekers.
Mitchell Maddox
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There is a Bill Monroe song titled, “My Last Days on Earth.” To me, it expresses the same feeling as Elton’s lyrics to “When This Old World Is Done With Me”
It is nice, sometimes, to hear/see art that looks at life from the perspective of someone who has been here a while.
James Riley
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I love your point about Rick Rubin. Case in point is Johnny Cash. I wasn’t much interested in “the man in black” before he collaborated with Rubin. Now those records are some of my favorites of any genre. For me, he made Cash immortal.
And I remember the first time I heard “More than a Feeling.” It just grabbed me, grabbed everyone, apparently. Doesn’t happen often.
Sam Folmar
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Thank you. This was an incredibly disappointing album.
Ron Fuller
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On point. Plenty of pedigree and polish here. Just no magic. Art is elusive, but you sure know it when you hear it, and when you don’t.
Peter Barsocchini
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Wow, Bob! Bravo for being brave enough to state the facts.
I too find myself yearning many times recently-and maybe the last 10-20 years for more of exactly what you stated.
Onward in musical -and life passion!!
Stephen Bond Garvan / Garvan Management
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In this case they can get it heard so all they needed was one thing.
A great hook!
They blew it.
Leigh Goldstein
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Thing is, I doubt he’s doing it to make a hit. He’s probably doing it to do what he does. Like you do. And they probably had fun bouncing sounds off each other.
I know Rick Rubin has been able to squeeze fresh juice outta people in the past, but I also wonder why musicians would want someone producing who doesn’t know how to engineer or play music. Whatever gets you thru the night…
I’m curious to hear these tracks tho thanks to you.
Geronimo Son
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Thanks for the note on the new album from Brandi and Elton. It prompted me to listen to it with diminished expectations and that paid off.
Not that my expectations would have been that high to begin with. I haven’t been interested in Elton John since the 70’s. He was huge and then he was irrelevant to me as I went off in my pursuit of punk and then new wave and then……
And Brandi? She’s amazing but she’s not a hit maker. Never was, never will be. That’s a big part of her appeal to me: she does what she wants to and has stayed true to that forever. Does that make her the Bernie Sanders of music?
So, I was pleased to find that this album is a collaboration and to my ears it’s more of a Brandi/Elton mix than an Elton/Brandi mix. That would have been the easy default: put the superstar out front. Thank god they are equals instead. And Brandi really shines instead of playing second fiddle.
“Swing for the Fences” got my foot tapping. That’s the song that I would have selected as the “single”. But, of course, Brandi takes the lead so there’s that. Gotta put Elton out front for the single even though the album is at its best when the two of them harmonize and rock.
And they do have chemistry together. That’s pretty cool.
Is it a f*cking great album? No, it’s not. But it’s much better than I thought it would be. And I like it a little bit more each time that I listen to it.
All the best,
Chuck Mackie
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Wow! Rhino Bucket, I thought my friends and I were the only ones who heard that album! Seemed like it when they came through SF. Still can’t
believe that never hit. I’m going to have to dig through my CD boxes. It sounds SO much better than Spotify et al.
-Vadim
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David Crosbys For Free. His last album. I can listen to that from front to back over and over again. He had never really reached me before. His greatest career making work was about 10 years ahead of my time. But ‘For Free’? That’s a magic album.
Dua Lipas’ ‘Future Nostalgia’ – it’s already 5 years old but ‘Levitating’ was a one-listen smash, only made better by DaBaby. My wife loved it and the entire album is in heavy rotation on a Friday evening at our house. Then Dua did that thing with Elton. That’s really good. People talked about that song.
Harry Styles. His one-listen smash was ‘As It Was’ that whole album is pretty good, it got ‘Watermelon Sugar’ back into rotation for us. I bet I like the next thing he does, I like that he’s not saturating me with garbage in the meantime.
Teddy Swims. He’s got a couple great original songs. Makes me dig into his catalog for more. His Shania Twain cover of ‘You’re Still the One’ is a testimony to great song writing. I tell people about that all the time.
David Essex’s ‘Rock On’ is my personal favorite forgotten gem that was recently revived just to hear on my amazing real life stereo. And ‘Cars’ by Gary Newman, ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood…
You should come over next Friday night. We’ll have fun.
Kind regards,
Rob Whittaker
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When this album first was announced, Paul Sinclair over at Super Deluxe Editionpromoted it with a splash page on his site, along with SDE doing an ‘exclusive’ release in Atmos and 5.1 on BluRay –
https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/elton-john-brandi-carlile-who-believes-in-angels-sde-exclusive-blu-ray/
If you scroll down to the comments, you’ll see folks opinions – most agree with you about the ho-hum nature of this release. There’s even a few comments about Andrew Watt not having the Midas touch.
“While another coup to get this for the SDE Surround Series, this is not for meThis doesn’t meet my criteria for purchasing. It is hard to learn to like new material now I am past 60, unless it is one of my favorite artists and I put the time into it. I know nothing of Brandi Carlile and with Elton audibly past his prime, this one is not for me.”
“Not sure about the album but the Dolby Atmos mix will probably sound a lot more dynamic than the stereo mix – Andrew Watt seems hell bent on being the next Rick Rubin (i.e. good from a creative standpoint, horrible from a sonic one).”
“Every record that has name Andrew Watt as a producer is hard pass from me. He spoiled the Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds totally. It was the first Stones album in 45 years i didn’t bought.”
“Hackney Diamond sounds godawful, even on vinyl. I played it twice and my ears hurt so much that I will never play it again.”
Now keep in mind Bob, these are audiophile nerds (and I count myself among them) that are obsessive over equipment, sonics and the playback medium. Vinyl rules, yes, but 5.1 and now Dolby Atmos make immersive audio worth investing in and obsessing over. 12 channels of audio at 48kHz/16 bit uncompressed – wow!
But if even they don’t want this record with all the bells and whistles of this special SDE release because the songs just don’t resonate… what hope is there for the rest of the market?
-Gil Griffith
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Brilliant piece. As a huge Elton fan, Captain Fantastic is tattooed on my arm, I think you’re bang on. Not every album was great. Other than those few 80s hits you mentioned I skipped a decade with Elton until Lion King. I love the fact that he’s still recording and trying things. I’ve seen the band live many times and was fortunate to meet Elton in Oshawa Ontario of all places once. But for me it’s about the memories of the great songs that I create playlists for on Spotify. Because I know longer own any music, I rent it monthly and that’s ok. And yes McCartney has had many stiffs but nobody who’s in the game that long bats 1000. Not in any industry
Ross Winters
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But did you see the network special (I know, I know, ‘network’ = bad word in the Lefsetz-sphere) w/ Elton and Brandi debuting the album live in front of a celebrity-filled crowd in London? Yeesh, I winced with all of the Elton fawning & worshipping going on. Almost sure Elton wasn’t a fan of it either. (Bet the editor of that special had to do ALOT of work.) But hey, silver lining? You just hepped me to RHINO BUCKET! After reading your missive, I did a quick YouTube play of the debut album and fell hard for it. Dug deep on Discogs to find a reasonably-priced vinyl copy from…wait for it…Australia. Ironic that I had to order a debut album from a Van Nuys band that sounds like Australia’s AC/DC and have it shipped from ‘down under’ back to me here in Burbank. But for this neanderthal of a vinyl fanatic? Totally worth the effort. Appreciate the hot tip, Bob! Cheers, Mark Atherlay, Burbank, CA.
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I watched Elton and Brandi Carlile on SNL. In my opinion they sucked but that didn’t stop me from watching their two hour special the next Monday. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
I have never been a fan of Brandi’s. She tries way too hard. I know, I know…her Joni stuff. But it’s a no for me.
So I started taking notes while watching the show, (I write a music post every Saturday on Facebook.). The first thing I wrote was “sounds like music for a Disney movie”. What’s interesting is later, they showed a clip of Brandi and Elton rehearsing and Elton said, “Is it too Lion King?”.
Yes brother…didn’t you have advisors to tell you that? – I’m right here baby!
I will say that Elton still sounded incredible – like no other. And his piano playing obviously is next level – he is the maestro. I loved hearing him sing his (albeit, overplayed) songs but what’s wrong with the odd deep track EJ? Ugh!
As my sister-in-law, said : I like old Elton, that’s about it. Me too!
Elton, when asked how he wants to be remembered, said: “I don’t want Crocodile f*cking Rock written on my tombstone. I just want it to say, I was a great dad”. That, I loved.
And now I will go spin my Captain Fantastic album.
Shari Siskind
Toronto
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I just listened to it on Apple Music. How great is that. I read your article and can go and listen to the whole album without leaving my recliner. I liked two songs, “Never too late” and “someone to belong too”. They had pop hooks, and pleasing melodies ok lyrics and were easy listening and I added them to a new playlist, along with “A little light”. These three I will enjoy even more as they become more familiar. All the others were ok, but for me, now 80 years young, and a former music reviewer for alternate print media, they sounded like two super star talents trying too hard to be relevant using today’s studio created packaged sound.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of both artists and especially Elton. In the 60s I was the manager of a San Francisco department store, The Emporium’s TV and music area. Every week to boost album sales I would put in the front of the department on a rack, my pick of favorite albums. When “Mad Man across the Water” first came out I was so enamored with the album and especially “Tiny Dancer” that I filled the rack that held ten Albums with only this one. Plus, I started playing the album in the department for background music, which was not allowed in the store. Well, we sold out immediately and I called our music distributor to send me more and more. To shorten the story, I got an award from our music distributor for selling the most of that album in a month, even more than Tower Records. Plus the store manager let me continue to play albums as background music in the department.
Alan Segal
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Hey! The comment about your relationship with Elton at the end reminded me of this paragraph I read in the Financial Times this past weekend; “Kissinger was a juggler; Brzezinski a boxer. When the latter accused Kissinger of “acrobatics” during the Nixon years, they nearly fell out. In spite of their often irascible disputes, the Republican and Democratic sparring partners never stinted on dinners at Sans Souci, a French restaurant (since closed) near the White House. You went there to be seen. “One always learns more from ‘friendly critics’ than from uncritical friends,” Kissinger wrote to Brzezinski after one such meal in the early 1970s. It is hard to imagine such a garrulous frenemyship in today’s Washington. ”
Maybe Elton has a thick enough skin to know that you are a “friendly critic”.
Take care, Bob.
Michael Craig
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You’re probably right about everything re: a one listen it.
Of course in your mind you’re right about everything.
If you do not believe it,
just ask yourself.
I don’t understand artists obsession with the “album format” either.
But …..
“They should’ve just hired me. “
The arrogance and hubris
After all those classic albums you’ve produced with one listen hits.
How can Elton and Brandi not have understood.
I mean they might’ve used Rick Rubin
But not choosing you.
Unbelievable
Cranky Old Uncle Bob rides agin
Keep setting the world straight.
Jack Haynes
