Review: Everything comes together on Brandi Carlile’s new classic

By time you are halfway through “The Joke,” a tune that soars with the kind of vocal drama, range and clarity that would make Adele take cover, it becomes apparent that everything in Brandi Carlile’s career had led up the crescendo that is her sixth and finest album, “By the Way, I Forgive You.” This is the record where all of her narrative steadfastness, all of the country/Americana sensibilities that inform her melodies and all of that gale force singing converge. The results are pretty much atomic.

Best of all, the combustible results come about somewhat unexpectedly. Listen to “By the Way, I Forgive You” without referencing any of her past work and what you hear is almost country in a 1971 kind of way. Credit some of that to the production team of, who else, Dave Cobb (the guy who ignited the recording careers of Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson) and Shooter Jennings. The latter, of course, is the son of country great Waylon Jennings who possesses a very forward thinking view of country tradition.

Jennings’ inclusion seems somewhat prophetic, as the 10 songs Carlile penned on “By the Way, I Forgive You” with longtime twin sibling co-horts Phil and Tim Hanseroth are populated with outlaws — just not the kinds Jennings Sr. sang about. Carlile offers the sacrifices and triumphs of a young parent in “The Mother” (“The first things she took from me were selfishness and sleep”), the suicide of drug-addled friend to whom she extends ample mercy in “Sugartooth” (“What in the hell are you going to do when the world has made its mind up about you”) and the lessons instilled by her own parents (“When I’m too far in the distance and the pushing comes to shove, to remember what comes back when you give away your love”).

So this whole literate slant on a retro country leaning album — a sort of Bobbie Gentry meets Bob Dylan summit — would be enough to recommend “By the Way, I Forgive You.” But then you need to factor in two key components that edge the album toward classic status.

The first is Carlile’s voice, which rips into the heavens to cement the anthemic potency of “The Joke,” “Whatever You Do” and “Harder to Forgive.” The second comes from the string arrangements of Paul Buckmaster, the stylist who gave so much animation to the early ‘70s records of Elton John (among countless other projects). Buckmaster died in November at the age of 71. Rather fittingly, Carlile dedicates “By the Way, I Forgive You” to his memory. But in a more exacting tribute, she also lets the elegiac sweep of his strings during “Party of One” conclude the album. It’s an apt and moving finale to Carlile’s glorious sound of forgiveness.

This story was originally published February 19, 2018 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Review: Everything comes together on Brandi Carlile’s new classic."