Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Brandi Carlile, Low Country Sound/Electra Records 2021.
The first Brandi Carlile album I heard was The Firewatcher’s Daughter (2015) which was a country/folk album that gained her a Grammy nomination.
I enjoyed it, although it’s a genre that isn’t usually among my first listening choices.
In These Silent Days is a completely different proposition.
Although its country/folk roots are still evident the scope of the album is much broader and so is her musical palette.
The album opens with a ballad, Right On Time, built on a subdued piano chord progression that swells as the song develops finishing on a crescendo as she sings “It wasn’t right, but it was right on time.”
From this impressive beginning she traverses through a variety of musical styles to suit the lyrical content of the songs.
She channels Joni Mitchell’s intimate story telling style in You And Me On The Rock and then thunders with the best of them on the magnificent Broken Horses, which contains all the bluesy swagger of Bad Company meets Led Zeppelin.
Talking of swagger, I love her impassioned indictment of evangelism in the track Sinners, Saints and Fools. She skewers them so adroitly that I couldn’t help but smile.
It’s the variety on the album that I love.
In the track Mama Werewolf, she laments that she’s “up all night when the world should sleep” and she implores her child to help her remain grounded at home.
In When You’re Wrong her anguish at the growing gap between her and her partner plays out musically and lyrically as the track reaches a crashing conclusion of wailing guitar and Carlile’s desperate scream.
Another favourite track is the closer Throwing Good After Bad which examines the rush of addiction.
By stripping the music right back the lyrics are brought into sharp focus and the song takes on additional meaning and depth.
We associate addiction with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, but she’s singing about the addiction of the chase, of the new, the addiction that leads people to search for answers elsewhere.
Even in evangelism and gurus, instead of having faith in yourself and appreciating everything you’ve already got.
