Spotlight Album Review: Brandi Carlile "In These Silent Days"

Although she had four well-regarded albums previously, it was The Firewatcher’s Daughter that really drew attention to Brandi Carlile, followed by the half-dozen Grammy nominations for 2018’s By the Way, I Forgive You that propelled Brandi’s career to a whole different level. This fueled expectations for her latest, In These Silent Days, and evidenced by her success on Billboard (entering at #1 on the Rock and Americana/Folk charts), Brandi doesn’t disappoint. More to the point, there’s no letdown in the musical quality.

Brandi has mentioned that she wanted to pick up where “The Joke” (nominated for 2018 Record of the Year and Song of the Year) left off, working again with producers Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings in Nashville.  “Right on Time,” co-written by Cobb and her musical compadres, the Hanseroth twins, is a power ballad along the same lines, with a quiet piano open that builds to a dramatic crescendo.  It’s a plea for reconciliation that contains the album’s title:

It's not too late
Either way, I lose you in these silent days
It wasn't right
But it was right on time

Is it about her wife? I can’t say for sure, but there are certainly songs that suggest that. The following song, “You and Me on the Rock,” celebrates the stability of love, built on a rock-solid foundation. It has unmistakable echoes of Joni Mitchell, her idol and now close friend, with backing vocals by everyone’s favorite singers, Lucius. (She’s performing the entire Blue album at Carnegie Hall on November 6, the day before Joni’s birthday.)  The piano ballad, “Letter to the Past” also affirms her wife’s strength (“You’re a stone wall/ in a world of rubber bands/ a pillar of belief”) while accepting life’s vulnerability.

Brandi had revealed that vulnerability in Broken Horses, her memoir published this year. The song “Broken Horses” is a defiant rocker that alludes to her father’s abuse and the pain she carries from her past. Speaking of family, she also references her kids. “Mama Werewolf” acknowledges the anger that she’s inherited from her father and pleads, “Would you change me back, make me kind again.” The tender “Stay Gentle” offers the advice “don’t let the world make you callous.”

Among the quieter songs, “This Time Tomorrow” showcases the exquisite harmony of Brandi and the twins; and the intimate “When You’re Wrong” details an older woman in a bad relationship and assures her there’s “someone strong enough to love when you’re wrong.” At the other end of the tonal scale, Cobb and Jennings pull out the stops on “Sinner, Saints, and Fools” with Elton John-style production, utilizing piano and strings. It’s the only political song, a parable about immigration: a “God-fearing man,” determined to “uphold the law” in spite of “the poor, huddled masses,” gets his comeuppance in heaven. The album on a quiet note with “Throwing Good After Bad.” It appears to be about an unrequited relationship (about whom?), but more generally, a cautionary tale:

People get addicted to
The rush, the chase, the new
Just hopin' that all that chaos
Will lead to somethin' like this

Perhaps that’s Brandi’s way of saying not to get caught up in the hype and adulation but stay true to family, friends, and music. I’d like to think she’ll be able to do that.