Brandi Carlile has announced a new album, Returning to Myself, dropping October 24th on Interscope Records/Lost Highway. As a preview, she’s shared the title track and its accompanying music video, directed by Floria Sigismondi. Stream it below.
Returning to Myself was co-produced by Carlile with Andrew Watt, Aaron Dessner, and Justin Vernon. In addition to Carlile’s longtime bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth and SistaStrings (Monique and Chauntee Ross), the album features contributions from Josh Klinghoffer, Chad Smith, Matt Chamberlain, Dave Mackay, Rob Moose, Blake Mills, Mark Isham, and Stewart Cole. Pre-orders are ongoing.
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In a press statement, Carlile said she finds spending time with herself “not just a lonely, but a painfully boring thing to do,” instead preferring to “double, triple, and quadruple down on co-dependency,” which she believes “isn’t really that unhealthy” except for “12-step programs and junior high school relationships.”
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As such, Carlile says her definition of learning to “be alone” is actually “being alone in a crowded room.” She continued, “People want to be together in silence more than we allow in our time. It’s falling deeply in love with the car wheels on a gravel road. The possibility of the visitor. The ‘not being alone-ness’ of it all…”
Carlile added that while “togetherness” has “given me everything I love about being alive” — including her band, wife, children, and relationships with Joni Mitchell and Elton John — she must “untether” because she doesn’t want to do it. “I don’t want to return to myself,” she said. “And that’s why I will.”
On that note, the lead single, “Returning to Myself,” describes Carlile’s turn toward introspection, as she sings, “Is it evolving, turning inward?/ Oh, what an easy way to be/ Only kneeling at the altar of/ The great and mighty me.”
This weekend, Carlile and her band will play a three-night run at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre (get tickets here). A press release promises there are more tour dates to be announced.
Returning to Myself follows Carlile’s joint project with Elton John, Who Believes in Angels?, one of the best albums released in April. Her most recent solo album, In These Silent Days, dropped in 2021.
Returning to Myself Artwork:
Returning to Myself Tracklist:
01. Returning to Myself
02. Human
03. A Woman Oversees
04. A War with Time
05. Anniversary
06. Church & State
07. Joni
08. You Without Me
09. No One Knows Us
10. A Long Goodbye
Brandi Carlile 2025 Tour Dates:
09/05 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09/06 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
09/07 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre