Album Review: Brandi Carlile, Returning To Myself

Having been pretty much responsible for Joni Mitchell’s return to live performance in recent years, and collaborated with Elton John on the Who Believes In Angels? album earlier in 2025, Americana queen Brandi Carlile is finally getting back to the day-job.

On this eighth solo album and her first in four years, Carlile ropes in three uber-talented co-producers in the shape of The National’s Aaron Dessner (who most famously twiddled knobs for Taylor Swift), Andrew Watt (Pearl Jam, Lady Gaga) and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the latter also contributing vocals to the epic ‘A War With Time’ and adding instrumentation throughout the album.

Other notable musicians include drummers Matt Chamberlain (Pearl Jam) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilli Peppers), and former Chilli Peppers’ guitarist Josh Klinghoffer on keyboards.

With that number of musical luminaries on board, it’s no surprise that Returning To Myself is a big and bold statement of intent, from the soaring gospel of ‘A Woman Overseas’ to the searing anger of ‘Church & State’, a full-on rocker penned on the night of Trump’s second election win.

Elsewhere, there’s the acoustic title track, which keeps the spirit of Joni Mitchell alive and well, and ‘Joni’, her superb paean to the great Canadian songstress, Carlile’s friend and mentor. ‘Human V4’ is a Sheryl Crowe-style slice of catchy roots-driven country rawk, while the gorgeous ballad ‘You Without Me’, which first appeared on Who Believes In Angels?, was co-written with Elton John, Bernie Taupin and producer Watt.

Then there’s the string-drenched ‘Anniversary’ and the bittersweet and beautiful ‘A Long Goodbye’, where Carlile’s crystalline voice is given all the space it needs to shine. With 11 Grammys already to her name, who would bet against Carlile hoovering up more golden trophies with this supremely confident collection?

8/10