I would be all for it.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 31 July 2013 17:34 (ten years ago) link
who's on backing vocals on "What'll Keep Me Out of Heaven"? incredible song
― Euler, Wednesday, 28 August 2013 16:21 (ten years ago) link
Vince Gill, answering my own question.
"What'll Keep Me Out of Heaven" sounds a bit like Rosanne Cash's "Blue Moon with Heartache", but the Vince Gill thing also brings out that this song would fit well on a 90s neotraditionalist album; sounds like an early Trisha Yearwood song ("The Woman In Me" or "Walkaway Joe", with Don Henley!)
that's high praise from me btw!
― Euler, Monday, 9 September 2013 19:58 (ten years ago) link
"Hold My Hand" sounds like it could have been an early 90s hit too, and maybe now too; not so far from a Sugarland ballad. love the "ha-an-nd" on the chorus. I get a kick out of the synth fadeout at the end because I can't hear the synth elsewhere in the song, but maybe it's just low in the mix once the song gets big near the end.
― Euler, Monday, 9 September 2013 20:27 (ten years ago) link
We got full stream
http://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/230890811/first-listen-brandy-clark-12-stories
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 October 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link
can't believe it's finally out there, such an incredible album
― lex pretend, Monday, 14 October 2013 16:17 (ten years ago) link
This is so good.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 14 October 2013 16:32 (ten years ago) link
xp I know, it seems like forever now.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 October 2013 16:43 (ten years ago) link
enjoying this
― festival culture (Jordan), Monday, 14 October 2013 17:10 (ten years ago) link
For an extra-emotional experience, I recommend reading about that Maryville rape case while listening to "Crazy Women".
― Murgatroid, Monday, 14 October 2013 17:13 (ten years ago) link
Annnnd interview
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/brandy-clarks-high-hopes-shine-on-12-stories-20131017
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 October 2013 17:57 (ten years ago) link
So it's out today so get it already if you haven't dammit
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 22 October 2013 18:43 (ten years ago) link
warning to ppl considering buying this from amazon mp3: i just got my copy from there and "hold my hand" has a really jarring momentary skip/static bit in one of the choruses :|
― dyl, Tuesday, 22 October 2013 21:09 (ten years ago) link
that same jarring digital glitch is in the spotify version. and in rhapsody too. i would think this is a visible enough album that someone would have noticed by now and fixed it. then again, things can move surprisingly slowly in the digital space.
― i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Wednesday, 30 October 2013 03:17 (ten years ago) link
"what'll keep me out of heaven" is as good as music gets. (and for some reason it reminds me of another trad-country cheating song, sunny sweeney's "from a table away," even though they're musically quite different and they take on cheating from opposite directions.)
― i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Wednesday, 30 October 2013 03:24 (ten years ago) link
three best on here are "What'll Keep Me Out of Heaven", narrowly ahead of "Hold My Hand" and "Just Like Him". she's got a way with the romantic songs.
could see "What'll Keep Me Out of Heaven" as a big hit for a different singer. this performance is fabulous (love Vince Gill's backing vocals) but a bigger voiced singer could knock this one out.
― Euler, Wednesday, 30 October 2013 13:51 (ten years ago) link
otm about "what'll keep me out of heaven"
― dyl, Wednesday, 30 October 2013 15:13 (ten years ago) link
then again, things can move surprisingly slowly in the digital space.
i learned recently that once a master goes out to digital distribution, it's super difficult to switch it out for another one in the case of an issue like this. even if the digital distributor (who sends it out to all those streaming services & download stores) requests that they replace it with a different version, there's no guarantee that they'll do it (and definitely not in a timely fashion).
― festival culture (Jordan), Wednesday, 30 October 2013 15:30 (ten years ago) link
Love Brandy Clark, but didn't buy the bait and switch of the recent half-assed Slate piece "Can Brandy Clark Save Country Music?" First, country music does not need saving (duh). Second, little about the piece is about Brandy Clark specifically, and more about the erstwhile team of Clark, Shane McAnally. Kacey Musgraves and Josh Osbourne. And I guess Trevor Rosen, too. Collectively, sure, country is better for their writing, but the piece did not make a case for Clark specifically/exclusively. Indeed, check out the full header in the link:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/10/brandy_clark_12_stories_shane_mcanally_and_others_saving_country_music.html
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 1 November 2013 13:34 (ten years ago) link
the headline is the biggest problem with the piece, really
― dyl, Friday, 1 November 2013 15:59 (ten years ago) link
Well, it should be something like "Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and Others Are Behind Some of the Best Country Music Right Now."
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 1 November 2013 16:22 (ten years ago) link
will clickbait headlines get josh in chicago to click? see if you know better than our expert columnist!
― j., Friday, 1 November 2013 16:32 (ten years ago) link
Slate is all click bait, but forgive me for wanting to read a story about an artist I like.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 1 November 2013 17:23 (ten years ago) link
"That's My Kind Of Night" is a good song. wonder if thinking country needs to be saved from that is just another version of "cribbing from Timbaland doesn't make for real country"
― Euler, Friday, 1 November 2013 20:45 (ten years ago) link
Tell it to Bubba Sparxxx.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 1 November 2013 21:55 (ten years ago) link
woulda sounded great on country radio in 2001!
― Euler, Saturday, 2 November 2013 00:35 (ten years ago) link
Oh, that Slate piece is by David Cantwell. I saw him do a good talk about Merle Haggard at an EMP Pop Conference
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 04:27 (ten years ago) link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/brandy-clarks-debut-album-is-a-stunner-but-will-anybody-hear-it/2013/11/05/04be0ea8-4656-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_story.html
Washington Post's Chris Richards has moved on from disparaging the sex lives of Arcade Fire to praising Brandy Clark
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 04:28 (ten years ago) link
good piece, as is the tennesseean blog linked in it - http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2013/11/03/peter-cooper-on-music-countrys-misfit/
i'm surprised and disappointed this hasn't got much as much traction as i thought it would
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 14:35 (ten years ago) link
also, this got edited from my piece, but brandy clark aspired to be a journalist, and studied it at college! which makes all kinds of sense
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 14:39 (ten years ago) link
Maybe if she wins a songwriter award tonight, it will somehow help her get industry support for her own release
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 14:45 (ten years ago) link
I listen to it at least once a week and my opinion hasn't moved: I love about half the songs, admire the intelligence and empathy of the rest, love the idea of her, but she doesn't excite me like her clients do.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 14:46 (ten years ago) link
otm
love "What'll Keep Me Out Of Heaven", "Hold My Hand", "Just Like Him", "Take A Little Pill", "Pray To Jesus", in that order
admire, as Alfred says, "Crazy Women", "The Day She Got Divorced", "Get High", "Hungover", "Stripes", "In Some Corner", in about that order
don't really care much for "Illegitimate Children": the chorus is clumsy. would be a nice b side though.
― Euler, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 14:50 (ten years ago) link
there isn't a song i don't at least like a lot; if pushed would put "illegitimate children" and "in some corner" at the bottom, but the former is still quite witty and the latter still has a nicely maudlin melody; it's only in the company of the rest that they don't stand out.
feel like there's a really great balance of the wry, detached storytelling and the one-moment-stretched-across-three-minutes ballads that hit the hardest emotionally - euler it seems like you prefer the latter? i really think the narrative detail and characters and just sheer craftsmanship in "crazy women", "the day she got divorced" and "hungover" are among my favourite things on the album.
as a performer she's obviously a lot less...characterful than someone like kacey musgraves, let alone miranda, but that fits with what she's trying to do overall - none of this album is about her, it's quite explicitly about giving voice to other people
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
"Hungover" is a good one to think about. the "little drummer boy" beat expresses hope for the woman who's finally feeling big enough to stand on her own; but what's said about the partner (a lover? a parent?) is so minimal that you don't get a feeling for the size of her triumph. & I can't really relate to feeling like her so my experiences can't fill in the narrative's gaps.
part of this is that it comes in right after "Take A Little Pill", continuing the earlier song's drone, but the songs aren't well connected; and I love "Take A Little Pill" so much that I'm let down.
― Euler, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 15:27 (ten years ago) link
I gotta say that this album always gives me a massive sense of empathy. An obvious point and it's not like country doesn't/hasn't had that from the get-go but it puts me in mind of my ex's small town in rural Northern California more than anything else I've heard in the field in recent years. Whether or not its perceived artlessness, for lack of a better term, is the reason why I couldn't say, but it's present.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 15:30 (ten years ago) link
"Hungover" is a good one to think about. the "little drummer boy" beat expresses hope for the woman who's finally feeling big enough to stand on her own; but what's said about the partner (a lover? a parent?) is so minimal that you don't get a feeling for the size of her triumph
i disagree - it's necessary that he's out of sight and increasingly out of mind, because the alienating distance between them is crucial to the story. we don't know anything about him because she increasingly doesn't recognise him. what makes the song great is the way clark builds the scale of each mini-accomplishment gradually - and the way she mixes up the literal with the metaphorical til they're the same thing. and there are so many awakenings and emancipations contained in it, sexual and domestic and financial...
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 16:40 (ten years ago) link
all true! I think I'd be better able to understand the awakenings if I understood more of what was keeping her down
or maybe that's the wrong way to think about it: maybe he's just another stranger partner relative to which her triumphs, no matter how small, look big
― Euler, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:37 (ten years ago) link
A good country song is, to me, like a pinewood derby car made in the scouts. With relatively little variation, and with a completely understood purpose, there is still an infinite measure of quality available through steady, measured craftmanship. I enjoy country songs that employ plain, straight languge and are predictable in the second half of their couplets or quatrains without needing a rim shot - unless it's on the 2 and the 4. It's like ordering a pepperoni pizza and getting exactly what the hell you asked for: a pepperoni pizza.
This album, from start to finish, is just that. It has wit, good stories, imagry that paints but doesn't overwhelm or stifle a listeners ability to connect, and is told in deceptively simple terms that belie the otherwise obvious care and effort Ms. Clark puts into her songs.
Without going into specifics about this song or that one - although "Hold My Hand" is the one that grabbed me the most this morning - I think the best thing I can say about this album is that it is full of songs that I know that at some point in the future I will reach for out a need that I know that song will satisfy.
I have to thank Ned for putting this one on his FB profile this morning. I probably would have missed it otherwise.
― Survivalist Compound Row (B.L.A.M.), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:08 (ten years ago) link
Yer welcome, sir.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:15 (ten years ago) link
first he told her that her hair looked nicepromised he was gonna leave his wifeyeah, two more liesshe didn't care
god she's so good at stories within stories. stories a lesser songwriter would build a career on, brandy clark tosses off in half a verse
― lex pretend, Friday, 29 November 2013 15:22 (ten years ago) link
"I'm definitely someone who likes to get my heart broke," she says. "I can get a little addicted to that. And my life is pretty stable, so I have to find it elsewhere. I like to get into books and movies and, honestly, other people's drama, I kind of feed off of that, because it does give me fodder for songs. And not just because it gives me fodder for songs — it's just something I like, weirdly."
http://www.spin.com/articles/brandy-clark-interview/
<3
― lex pretend, Friday, 6 December 2013 20:06 (ten years ago) link
On Letterman!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmFRXZdtDJY
― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Friday, 10 January 2014 18:50 (ten years ago) link
Grammy-nominated for Best New Artist!
― jaymc, Friday, 5 December 2014 16:57 (nine years ago) link
:D
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 5 December 2014 17:01 (nine years ago) link
Wait, is that award still a kiss of death?
we've been enthusing on the country thread
idk what a kiss of death would even mean in the context of an artist who only sold 29k of the album in the first place
― lex pretend, Friday, 5 December 2014 17:15 (nine years ago) link
Shane McAnally @shanemcanally 3h3 hours agoDear every major Nashville label that passed on @TheBrandyClark - suck it.
― lex pretend, Friday, 5 December 2014 17:39 (nine years ago) link
Nice
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 5 December 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
she also got nominated for best country album :)))
― dyl, Friday, 5 December 2014 19:36 (nine years ago) link
I didn't mind the filigree so much as the other overstuffed songs. I realize I'm complaining about songs having too many details.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 June 2016 19:50 (seven years ago) link
oh my god, the way "since you've gone to heaven" pans out from family tragedy to social decay is heartbreaking
― the hallouminati (lex pretend), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 09:22 (seven years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/16/brandy-clark-country-music-nashville-interview
― the hallouminati (lex pretend), Thursday, 16 June 2016 12:11 (seven years ago) link
http://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/482329768/brandy-clark-tiny-desk-concert
― Mordy, Monday, 20 June 2016 18:10 (seven years ago) link
Why Brandy, how tart of you
https://twitter.com/TheBrandyClark/status/771384198720520192
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 September 2016 16:29 (seven years ago) link
best / cleverest line / lyric / turn of phrase on Big Day? let's hear 'em...
― alpine static, Sunday, 9 October 2016 20:05 (seven years ago) link
saw her live last night, two acoustic guitars and that was it. pretty much perfect. she closed with 'America the Beautiful' segueing into 'Pray to Jesus' which felt like a real message
― the notes the loon doesn't play (ulysses), Saturday, 12 November 2016 18:17 (seven years ago) link
h/t underrated aero:
https://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/oak-ridge-boys-sing-brandy-clark-hear-pray-to-jesus-w516704
― etc, Monday, 19 February 2018 01:57 (six years ago) link
can't get enough of this tune
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 19 February 2018 02:02 (six years ago) link
just started up the new one
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 6 March 2020 16:33 (four years ago) link
It's good!
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 6 March 2020 16:40 (four years ago) link
it is!
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 6 March 2020 16:41 (four years ago) link
“pawn shop” is effortlessly lovely
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 6 March 2020 18:27 (four years ago) link
"Apologies" is sounding the best so far.
― Joey Corona (Euler), Friday, 6 March 2020 18:28 (four years ago) link
flute AND horns
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 6 March 2020 18:40 (four years ago) link
Surprised this wasn't linked yet:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/no-one-is-writing-better-country-songs-than-brandy-clark-is
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 6 March 2020 19:52 (four years ago) link
"take a cinder block with you as a souvenir" is a great jabi can do without the randy newman track but most of the rest is great. it's a beautifully produced album, if this doesn't get radio play for her i can't imagine what will.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/brandy-clark-interview-your-life-is-a-record-best-songwriting.html
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 12 March 2020 13:28 (four years ago) link
“Can we be Strangers” is an astounding song. Structurally put together so well. Great lyrics too. What a chorus.
― Heez, Saturday, 14 March 2020 23:59 (four years ago) link
so is "The Past is the Past." Fabulous use of strings generally.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 15 March 2020 00:01 (four years ago) link
this is a great record, killer AM radio energy
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 15 March 2020 00:02 (four years ago) link
Closet thing I can think of is Lee Ann Womack’s last one
― Heez, Sunday, 15 March 2020 01:34 (four years ago) link
This is brilliant. No weak points at all. I even like "Bigger Boat".
― Jeff W, Thursday, 19 March 2020 18:51 (four years ago) link
i draw the line at Bigger Boat. Love everything else though!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 19 March 2020 18:54 (four years ago) link
"The Past is the Past" would make such a killer Springsteen song
― Heez, Sunday, 26 April 2020 02:51 (three years ago) link
"I wanna be at least almost close to worth your love" is such a devastating line
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 01:59 (three years ago) link
Real damn good. She gets better with each album, seems like. I raved about it at some length over on Rolling Country.
― dow, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 02:30 (three years ago) link
revisited the new one and goddamn is it great
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 17:05 (three years ago) link
it is! The new singles are not tho.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 17:17 (three years ago) link
by which i mean "like mine" and "same devil" which strike me as fishing attempts to see what the country market wants
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 20 October 2020 17:19 (three years ago) link
In celebration of the one-year anniversary of her critically acclaimed album, Your Life is a Record, eight-time GRAMMY nominee Brandy Clark will release a special new deluxe edition, Your Life is a Record (Deluxe), on March 5 on Warner Records. In addition to all eleven songs from Your Life is a Record, the deluxe album will feature six bonus tracks including “Remember Me Beautiful,” a new song Clark wrote earlier this year as part of NPR’s Morning Edition Song Project. The album will also feature special collaborations with Brandi Carlile (“Like Mine” and “Same Devil”) and Lindsey Buckingham (“The Past is the Past”) as well as live renditions of two album tracks: “Pawn Shop” and “Who You Thought I Was."Moreover, in honor of the album’s anniversary, Clark will perform her first ticketed Livestream concert Saturday, March 6 at 8/7 CT via Mandolin. Tickets for the show are available now with a selection of purchase options, including a limited number of VIP packages with signed merchandise and a virtual meet & greet. Fans will also have the option to add a digital download of the deluxe album to their Livestream ticket, to be delivered on release day. Full details can be found at https://boxoffice.mandolin.com/collections/brandy-clark.
Moreover, in honor of the album’s anniversary, Clark will perform her first ticketed Livestream concert Saturday, March 6 at 8/7 CT via Mandolin. Tickets for the show are available now with a selection of purchase options, including a limited number of VIP packages with signed merchandise and a virtual meet & greet. Fans will also have the option to add a digital download of the deluxe album to their Livestream ticket, to be delivered on release day. Full details can be found at https://boxoffice.mandolin.com/collections/brandy-clark.
― That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 18 February 2021 04:23 (three years ago) link
lindsey!
― just sayin, Thursday, 18 February 2021 07:50 (three years ago) link
Austin City Limits livestream starting real soon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lTHkXdC6sc
― bon ivermectin (Murgatroid), Wednesday, 4 August 2021 00:59 (two years ago) link
Saw her at a small venue, blown away, what a songwriter!
Fantastic set: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brandy-clark/2022/lille-vega-copenhagen-denmark-bb0c18e.html
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 11 September 2022 10:38 (one year ago) link