Elton John and Brandi Carlile on Reinventing the Collaborative Album With ‘Who Believes in Angels?’: ‘We Couldn’t Do Steve and Eydie — We Had to Go In Hell-for-Leather’

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The album title “Who Believes in Angels?” may or may not be a rhetorical question, but it’s OK to stick with that lofty circumlocution long enough to consider the idea that Elton John and Brandi Carlile may actually be a match made in heaven, figuratively or otherwise.

These longtime friends share that sense of being touched by virtuosity and endless melodic capability on a level few of their pop-rock peers ever could be.

And it’s just sort of the gay cherry on top that, incidentally, both of them can be said to be the gay icons of their respective generations with the most naturally broad mass appeal across vastly different demographics, respected, if not beloved, by nearly every rocker, queen or grandma who falls within the sound of their voices.

Those voices are conjoined at length for the first time on “Who Believes in Angels?,” a 10-song collection that comes out today.