Following her 2018 breakthrough, By the Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile embraced many roles: Brandi the Underdog, a singer who conquered the mainstream after a decade of hustling; Brandi the Steward, ushering in the resurgences of icons like Elton John, Tanya Tucker, and Joni Mitchell; Brandi the Author, with her 2021 bestselling memoir; and Brandi the Collaborator, following her supergroup the Highwomen and her production work with Brandy Clark and Lucius.
None of these roles left much space for Brandi the Artist, or Brandi the Person. That’s the thesis of Returning to Myself, Carlile’s eighth solo album. It’s a frequently moving, occasionally spellbinding, and sporadically frustrating statement that represents Carlile’s finest work since By the Way. But it’s more than a return to form, pointing toward new textures in Carlile’s voice, sense of melody, and instincts as a co-producer (alongside heavyweights Aaron Dessner and Andrew Watt).
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See “No One Knows Us,” the album’s memoiristic centerpiece (“Eighties movies and Everclear/What if we’re gay?”), and the one that best utilizes the yin-yang of Dessner and Watt. Other highlights: the gorgeous verse melody on soft rocker “Human,” the hushed acoustic ballad “Anniversary,” and “You Without Me,” a gut-punch meditation on parenting adapted from her recent Elton John collaboration: “Heavy are the hands,” she sings, “that you are free to slip right through.”
Returning to Myself is at its best when most committed to Carlile’s interiority. When it strays from that, namely on the Joni Mitchell tribute “Joni,” its premise gets diluted. And while the Eighties arena rocker “Church & State” is a clear future live set piece, it also feels slightly out of place.
That’s mostly because the rest of this album feels so of a piece. In the Dessner-influenced “A War With Time,” Carlile sneaks the album’s thesis into a sweet reflection on a trip she took to New York as a young adult: “When you find yourself alone,” she sings, “retrace your steps and come back home.”
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