Although the two singer/songwriters operate on separate sides of the Americana and country divide, a pairing of
Brandy Clark and
Brandi Carlile was perhaps inevitable. Not only do they share similar names, they're of a similar age, both were raised in the Pacific Northwest, and both are songwriters who prize precision and handsome melodies.
Brandy Clark does exist at this common ground, accentuating the careful craft within
Clark's compositions by keeping things intimate and unadorned. To that end,
Carlile moved
Clark far away from Nashville, hunkering down in
Rick Rubin's Shangri-La Studio and cutting the entire album live with such rock-oriented players as drummer
Matt Chamberlain and bassist
Sebastian Steinberg. Make no mistake,
Clark hasn't made a rock album; amplifiers aren't cranked, the rhythms are not juiced. Rather,
Carlile cannily revives the immediacy of
12 Stories without sacrificing the subtle blessings bestowed by studio pros. Throughout
Brandy Clark, the instrumental is empathetic to the point it can seem almost invisible, letting
Clark relax and sigh as she acknowledges insecurities and tells tales of heartbreak, steering away from both the clever wit and story songs that helped build her reputation. It's not a break so much as a shift in focus:
Clark's steady lyrical hand and clear voice are placed at the forefront, conveying a sense of quiet strength that seems to call out for the kind of unvarnished production that
Carlile provides.
Brandy Clark benefits from her songs being heard without the pleasing Nashville accouterments that decorated
Big Day in a Small Town and
Your Life Is a Record: in these spare settings, the emotional pull of her songs is undeniable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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