Brandi Carlile
★★★★
In These Silent Days
ATLANTIC. CD/DL/LP
Seventh long-player from the Grammyfestooned activist.
IN THE US, Brandi Carlile is a guaranteed Top 10 act who headlines Madison Square Garden. Here in the UK, she is far less wellknown. Inevitably, perhaps, it’s the UK’s loss. As Mama Werewolf reminds us, Carlile was once a reasonably straightforward alt-country artist, but she’s matured and mutated into something altogether more mercurial, where she straddles a host of genres, while bold harmonies underpin all she does. The opening Right On Time is a ballad that could soundtrack almost any big-budget blockbuster, Stay Gentle is as sparse as earworms come, while the rootsy but literate Broken Horses wouldn’t have been out of place on a late-’80s Melissa Etheridge album. Everything comes together on Sinners, Saints & Fools which begins with dramatic strings, flirts with being a windswept anthem and climaxes in a freeform freakout. Certainly, there’s nothing here to stop her rise.