Brandi Carlile
Brandi Carlile
(Columbia/Red Ink)
First Appeared in The Music Box, August 2005, Volume 12, #8
Written by John Metzger
As if new artists don’t have enough pressure placed upon them by their labels, Brandi Carlile recently was named one of Rolling Stone’s "10 Artists to Watch." She now faces the unenviable task of trying to live up to exorbitant expectations. Her eponymous debut isn’t going to help her cause. It’s filled with run-of-the-mill songs that boast adequate arrangements and average lyrics. In fact, if it wasn’t for the way in which she applies her voice to the material, all of the attention that she has received of late wouldn’t be warranted at all.
At the age of 23, Carlile has received an abundance of praise for her captivating presence on stage. Despite the utterly bland music that fills her self-titled effort, her spellbinding persona manages to save the outing from becoming a complete and total train wreck.
Not surprisingly, the worst moments the
eponymous affair come when the
material confines Carlile's talent within a generic sea of mediocrity. Although these
weak spots largely are sprinkled in bits and pieces throughout the album, they
culminate within the alt-rock aspirations of the Heart-influenced Fall Apart
Again. Fortunately, however, there are plenty of other opportunities for
Carlile to shine. On Someday Never Comes, for example, her tortured wails
recall a cross between Jeff Buckley and Radiohead’s Thome Yorke, and within the
quaint, country-tinged waltz of What Can I Say, she touches upon the
haunted loneliness of Patsy Cline. Indeed, it’s Carlile’s aching, world-weary
delivery that perfectly encapsulates the distance that separates people, and
whenever she allows her quivering voice to shift through the full breadth of her
range, she emits an anguished cry that an old blues man certainly would admire. 
Of Further Interest...
Mark Pickerel - Snake in the Radio
KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Brandi Carlile is available from Barnes & Noble.
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005 The Music Box