# Brandi Carlile



## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

I believe that this brilliant artist deserves her own thread. I noticed her way before many people in the US even knew who she was. I noticed her probably because of her covers of some Elton John songs because she is his big fan and she even did a duet with Elton. 
She won 3 Grammy awards in 2019 for her 6th studio album 'By the Way, I Forgive You'. That album is pretty much a grower. Some of her previous albums are even better imo. 
Her music is a mix of folk-rock-pop-country and it really resonates with me for some reason. 
I think that she is the best female vocalist I ever heard because she sounds on every level so human, natural, 'down to earth'. She is a great songwriter/composer along with twins Hanseroth who are the part of her band and songwriting team. Since I love Elton's music, maybe that's the same mindset where Brandi comes from, so I really like the way she writes music. 
You can find here more about her:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandi_Carlile

This is brilliant live version of her songs from brilliant live album 'Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony' that has some great orchestral arrangements by late Paul Buckmaster who was also Elton's arranger on some albums:






This is really beautiful composition... it shows what her vocals are capable of:






She also has great vocal for rock songs... this is probably one of the best live performances ever. To hear her sing go to *32:24*:






She is also capable to play a piano and this is brilliant song. I believe that even Elton would be proud if that was his song, but it's Brandi's:






This was her greatest hit from her 2nd album:


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

She won Grammy for this song. It needed some time to grow on me:






Beautiful dark acoustic song:






The same song with great Buckmaster orchestral arrangements:






Another beautiful songs:


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Speaking of Brandi, tonight she'll be performing with Brittney Spencer on Jimmy Kimmel.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

My wife and I had this as our song for some time. Pretty raw live version here. Love it <3


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Orchestral version is also brilliant:


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

This is how I would rate her albums:

Brandi Carlile (2005) - 3/5
The Story (2007) - 4.5/5
Give Up the Ghost (2009) - 5/5
Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony (2011) - 5/5
Bear Creek (2012) - 4.5/5
The Firewatcher's Daughter (2015) - 4/5
By the Way, I Forgive You (2018) - 4/5

Some other great songs... 
This song is about her friend who committed suicide. I really like the flow of beautiful and dreamy chorus:






Fun duet with Elton John:






Beautiful folk song:






This is great little song:






To me, this is the best cover of Cohen's 'Hallelujah':


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

nikola said:


> This is how I would rate her albums:
> 
> Brandi Carlile (2005) - 3/5
> The Story (2007) - 4.5/5
> ...


Ho-hum.
*******


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Red Terror said:


> Ho-hum.
> *******


Did you listen to this?





Still ho-hum? Oh well... we're all entitled to our bad taste 
Her music is objectively WAY better than 99% of pop-rock-folk music out there.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Not only that she has one of the strongest vocals ever, but she is also able to sing properly, unlike Christina Aguilera for example. 
Not only that, but she and the twins from her band are actually pretty much brilliant songwriters. The way they compose music can't be found today. It's like old style-ish way of composing. She has Johnny Cash sensibility and Elton John's songwriting abilities and that's something that is really unique. She also sounds really 'humane' and unforced. She is natural talent. 

What I like about their songwriting is that subtlety to know where to put certain note, to tell the story in natural way, not to oversing when it's not necessary, yet showing the raw power of her voice when it is needed. They know how to develop melodies etc. She is also truly diverse artist who can sound great in pop, rock, country, folk etc. 
After listening to hunderds of pop-rock-folk musicians/bands in the last 10 years I was mostly always kinda disapointed, but she was a true discovery, at least to me and I can't get bored with her music. 

Who really wants to be introduced to her properly, at least listen to 'Give Up the Ghost' album which is IMO one of the best albums ever, right up there with 'Revolver' from The Beatles, 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' by Elton John etc.

She is everything what music and real talent is about.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

nikola said:


> Not only that she has one of the strongest vocals ever, but she is also able to sing properly, unlike Christina Aguilera for example.
> Not only that, but she and the twins from her band are actually pretty much brilliant songwriters. The way they compose music can't be found today. It's like old style-ish way of composing. She has Johnny Cash sensibility and Elton John's songwriting abilities and that's something that is really unique. She also sounds really 'humane' and unforced. She is natural talent.
> 
> What I like about their songwriting is that subtlety to know where to put certain note, to tell the story in natural way, not to oversing when it's not necessary, yet showing the raw power of her voice when it is needed. They know how to develop melodies etc. She is also truly diverse artist who can sound great in pop, rock, country, folk etc.
> ...


She has a good voice and can sing well, certainly better than Aguilera (that obnoxious harpy). But the music itself leaves me cold; pleasant, polite, precious and ultimately unadventurous. It's music for the alt country crowd and suburban housewives.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Red Terror said:


> She has a good voice and can sing well, certainly better than Aguilera (that obnoxious harpy). But the music itself leaves me cold; pleasant, polite, precious and ultimately unadventurous. It's music for the alt country crowd and suburban housewives.


Considering what you are saying it doesn't seem that you were listening anything I posted except what you quoted!?

'Raise Hell' is 'pleasant, polite and unadvanterous'? It's pretty much raw folk-rock song just like majority of her music. Yes, sometimes she can be pleasant and gentle and she still sounds pretty much organic and every song is different.
What I find "pleasant, polite, precious and ultimately unadventurous" are Norah Jones, Diana Krall and even at many times Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave.... etc.
Brandi? Certainly not. If not for anything else, her compositions are way better than what we are mostly offered today. To me, song like 'Oh Dear' is musically a little diamond considering the rest of derivative and minimalistic pop and folk crap out there.

I could even say for Katie Melua that she is ''pleasant, polite and unadvanterous', but I still like her because the quality of compositions is great, especially what Mike Batt wrote. 
We obviously have different view on music and what music actually is and what its purpose is. It's hard for me to really like majority of music, so that's why I find Brandi even more incredible because I really believe that she is way above all trendy or indie or alternative artists/bands today simply because she can write and develop a really good tune unlike many other overrated musicians out there. And that's just a small part of her talents. 
But what good song is? Some people will never know even if they hear it.

She is almost the only 'newer' artist today that I love and I really heard a lot of music.

I guess that what you would find 'adventurous' I would probably find boring and annoying. And that's perfectly fine.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

nikola said:


> Considering what you are saying it doesn't seem that you were listening anything I posted except what you quoted!?
> 
> 'Raise Hell' is 'pleasant, polite and unadvanterous'? It's pretty much raw folk-rock song just like majority of her music. Yes, sometimes she can be pleasant and gentle and she still sounds pretty much organic and every song is different.
> What I find "pleasant, polite, precious and ultimately unadventurous" are Norah Jones, Diana Krall and even at many times Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave.... etc.
> ...


To each his own I suppose. But if I am in need of pleasant nap later today, you can be certain Carlile will be escorting me away to dreamland.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Red Terror said:


> To each his own I suppose. But if I am in need of pleasant nap later today, you can be certain Carlile will be escorting me away to dreamland.


3rd time: did you listen to 'Raise Hell'? Is that type of the song that will put you to sleep? 
Here it is:





Did you hear the first song I posted 'Looking Out'?
Do you also think that song will put you to sleep?
It seems to me that you managed to confuse Brandi with Norah Jones and her simplistic, dry and sedative music, because what you are saying really makes no sense. Yes, she has some pleasant songs, but there is actually a big difference between pleasant song with melodic quality and pleasant song that is derivative and goes nowhere


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Now, don't get me wrong. It's perfectly ok if you don't like it or if you hear something different than me while listening to the same song. I just try to understand. I also think that the big difference could be in the terms of 'emotional impact' on listener since there are different people who don't find the same things/movies/songs to be emotional. 
Emotional 'triggers' are different to different people, while same for some other people. 
For example, to me, one of the most emotional compositions ever is 'Adagietto' by Mahler from 5th, but to some people some dry and annoying jazz noodle would be emotional and not Mahler. 
Psychopath probably wouldn't be able to recognize what emotional on any level is.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

More songs by Brandi... just for me 

A dramatic one:






Dramatic ending:






Brandi on piano playing some ballads:











More energetic one:


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