Back in April, I did a quick deep dive into the six album releases by Brandi Carlile. At the time, her next album had been teased but not announced. Well, it arrived this month.
In These Silent Days is Carlile’s first album since the widely celebrated 2018 release By the Way, I Forgive You. That album won multiple Grammys and led to a star-making live performance on the award show’s main stage. Since then, Carlile has penned a best-selling memoir, befriended and performed a tribute to Joni Mitchell, and palled around with the Obamas.
She also lived through a year of the pandemic, during which she penned and recorded the ten songs on In These Silent Days. Over the next two weeks, I’ll give this album the track-by-track treatment I reserve for my very favorite artists.
The album opener is first single ‘Right On Time,’ which you can hear in its studio version on this post from two months ago. Below is a live performance of the song that really drives home how amazing Carlile is in concert. My wife and I were lucky enough to catch her in March of 2020, the last time we were in a crowded place for more than a year.
This is a great way to start the album, blending contemplative lyrics and powerful vocals in an emotional anthem. We’ll see if the rest of In These Silent Days can live up to it.
Come back now, even if you call me out
You might be angry now, of course you are
I’m scared too, didn’t mean to take it out on you
I know I always do, you’re the strongest person in the room
Turn back time, help me to rewind and we can
Find ourselves again
[Chorus]
It’s not too late
Either way, I lose you in these silent days
It wasn’t right
But it was right on time
[Verse 2]
Don’t look down
I can feel it when your heart starts pounding
It’s beyond your control, you know it is
It’s getting to the point where I can’t carry on
I never held my breath for quite this long
And I don’t take it back, I did what I had to do
[Chorus]
It’s not too late
Either way, I lose you in these silent days
It wasn’t right
But it was right on time
[Instrumental Break]
[Chorus]
It’s not too late
Either way, I lose you in these silent days
It wasn’t right
But it was right on time
Meet Me In Montauk 
Brandi was on the Howard Stern show last week, where she did a wonderful stripped down version of this song, amongst other great performances, including this cover of Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water.”
Wow… great performance!
Thanks for this one. I had just watched her Howard Stern performance of “Madman Across the Water” a few days ago and then your post convinced me to check out the new CD.