Album Review: Brandi Carlile – Returning To Myself
3 min read
Brandi Carlile has had a busy few years. After resurrecting Joni Mitchell’s live presence and helping her nab a GRAMMY for best live album, she created one of this year’s best rock album’s in the form of her collaboration with Elton John. In her own right, she’s an eleven-time GRAMMY-award winning singer-songwriter, and has become one of the greatest vocalists of her generation. With all this, it’s no surprise that her latest album Returning To Myself has been a long-awaited return to her solo roots.
The album begins fittingly with the reflective title track, Brandi’s lonesome vocal playing off the acoustic guitar wonderfully. It’s a tune about finding yourself again after so long, but feels vague enough to keep intrigue as to who she is talking to. The audience, herself, or a loved one perhaps? It maintains its softness, only building with electric guitars later into the choruses, something that following track Human also does but tenfold. A song of defiance, its explosive chorus and natural warmth in its delivery stay with you even after continuing on into the album. A Woman Overseas has a hint of Elton John’s influence in the electric piano chords and melody, but the backing harmonies that rise and fall take it into it’s own unique space. A War With Time is an exceptional track, overflowing with existential dread and love for someone gone by. It’s certainly another highlight.
Anniversary is a beautiful, string-drenched acoustic ballad, while Church & State rocks in out of nowhere with a gritty bass line and an 80s-style reverb drenched guitar line. Brandi’s voice slots perfectly into the style, providing a toe-tapping tune with ease. Joni is a self-explanatory song, if you know the context between Brandi and the legendary Joni Mitchell. Strong friends, the gorgeous tribute embodies Joni’s style of melody and chord progression, and the result is something that I hope she is very proud of and grateful for existing. For the rest of us out of the loop, it’s as wonderfully hypnotic. You Without Me is an inclusion from Brandi’s album with Elton John, and it fits perfectly on the back half of the album, while No One Knows Us brings back the country-tinged rock instrumentation for another powerful love anthem. Closer A Long Goodbye is a slow-burning song that mirrors the opener, and ends the record on a melancholic but beautiful note.
Returning To Myself is a triumphant record, filled with complex songwriting, amazing vocal performances, and an array of styles that really compliment Brandi’s incredible fluidity as a musician. It slots nicely within her previous work, and while it doesn’t rock the boat too hard, it is certainly an album worth listening to.
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Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
