In These Silent Days (studio album) by Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlisle has been the darling of the Americana scene for about a decade now, and I have yet to see what the fuss is about. She's a great singer but the material is lackluster and this type of music has been executed far better by other artists. I'll give it points for being touched by Dave Cobb's production.

Look at Horses and the Hounds by James McMurtry and Stand for Myself by Yola for the best Americana albums of 2021.

A-Side: Broken Horses
B-Side: Sinners, Saints and Fools

From jnfbn 10/18/2021 21:13

Totally agree with Mercury's elaborate and sentimental critique of this unbelievably immense piece of music. Simply the best of this year, stunning work from one song to another!

From Mercury 10/12/2021 16:21

(One of the best albums of this year. Easily. From one of the greatest and most consistent musicians of this millennium so far. Again, that is easily the case. This woman doesn't miss. If you love heartfelt singer/songwriter albums and songs and if you love albums that are rooted in American folk, country, country rock and all that stuff, then I highly recommend this to you.)

This album took a little while to worm its way into my heart. At first I thought it was just another solid album from Carlile - one of the best and most consistent singer/songwriters of the last decade and a half - and that was it. I thought maybe some of the songs were too sacharrine and sentimental and I thought this album had some special something missing. But after several listens it feels like this album is much better than I was giving it credit for. It has a certain depth of feeling and of course some incredible production that now strike me as exceptional.

The opener "Right On Time" is perhaps the source of my feeling of over-sentimentality earlier on. Now that track feels heartfelt and wise. On first listen it felt too much, too direct, too much like a pick-me-up type song. But now I just think its a beautiful song that is, truthfully, pretty damn direct in its advice-like messaging, but also gorgeous with some solid piano melodies and its a solid opener.

Aftyer that opener is when this album opens up and sonically is just a damn feast. Whether Brandi is rocking out with some cosmic american badassery, or is bringing the songs down to the earthy ground with a folk ballad, or if she is doing a somewhat old American standards sounding song, or really whatever avenue she chooses to sue, the songs here are consistently warm and full and the production is just so gorgeously fleshed out! The singing is solid throughout, the only complaint I have for the vocals is that Brandi does that big vibrato trick. I love it sometimes when she does that, but sometimes it feels a bit much. Still, overall, she is a great singer, she knows when to imbue a line with a certain croak or strain to get across a feeling, and she knows when to really belt out these big notes and when to take it down to a quieter and more intimate affair.

The band here and the way the instruments interact are incredible. The guitar playing here is earthy and powerful and gorgeous, the drums and percussion are consistently beautiful and hard hitting, and when the songs are layered with strings or horns or back up singers, they are produced and performed excellently and work to add a certain drama and largeness to the tracks.

Standout tracks include: the heavy as hell and epic "Sinners, Saint and Fools" - the way that song builds and then crescendos at its close is...HOLY SHIT! Amazing stuff. The touching and lullaby-soft closer "Throwing Good After Bad" is a standout - her vocals here are stunning and soulful and brilliant. Also, track 2 "You and Me on the Rock (Feat. Lucius)" is a buoyant and loving and exuberant Americana jam that puts a smile on my face, and its a sweet love song... I think... and I love a good love song. "This Time Tomorrow", oh boy, I love that acoustic melody that comes in and those 2 part harmonies, and those lyrics, and the whole vibe of this track is just what I want injected straight into my folk-loving veins. Fuck me, I love this sound and song. Of course there is MASSIVE country rocking masterpiece that is "Broken Horses" - this song has everything going for it, incredible lyrics and a chorus that is so inspiring it should be illegal and a massive rocking stomp and riff that can make me feel renewed in these demoralizing times, and it has some of the most intense vocals of her career, and the way the song - which is already epic as hell - opens up toward the end with a face melting passionate guitar solo after a slow, sensual build, holy shit when those last 90 seconds of music come in, I am on cloud nine! Oh and the piano chords are so strident and powerful. anyway, you get the idea this track is a badass one and you should check it out. "Letter to the Past" melts my heart and somehow this songs makes me love Brandi more than I already did, this feels like a message from a dear friend. "Mama Werewolf" has a vein of sadness and grief running through it that it is excellent and at times overwhelming, then there is also the drama and power of the singing and the rhythm and the piano and the way this song builds up stronger and stronger - it feels larger than life and I love it. "When You're Wrong" is pained and beautiful and has a very soft sound and Brandi's vocals are excellent and touching. "Stay Gentle" sounds like an old timey American standard, and it works as a track to rock away your worries and woes. And it seems weird to leave one single solitary song out of this massive paragraph of standout tracks, especially when the one song left off is the opener and so, I'll say that now that I have heard it a dozen times, the opening track "Right On Time" is a standout and is a beautiful and reassuring little song. Of course now that I have listed here every song as a standout that means none are stabndouts or it means each of these songs is a standout in comparison to most music I hear in general. I will say that latter option is true. I think this album is just fabulous, its uplifting and its emotional and gritty and real and sad and hopeful... this is a great album in my opinion and I recommend it.