Score: 4.5/5
Brandi Carlile’s 12-song album, “The Firewatcher’s Daughter” is a folksy dream.
The opening track “Wherever Is Your Heart” is warm and comforting. Fast-paced and inviting, Carlile belts “wherever is your heart I call home.” Like most of the album, the song puts forth the notion of home not being a physical place, but loved ones, no matter where they are. “Wherever Is Your Heart” is the introduction to the strong bonds of love Carlile sings about through the rest of the album. Starting off small, the song rises and by the chorus, becomes a sweeping anthem of pure joy.
After starting with a raucous high, the album then falls mellow and reflective in the second track, “The Eye.” Much slower and Fleetwood Mac reminiscent, it’s a picturesque folk song, heavily focused on imagery, with “The Eye,” referring to the eye of a hurricane.
A major departure from the rest of the album’s sound, “Mainstream Kid” is a bluesy, rock track. Carlile rarely strays from the album’s central theme of love, but when she does, she produces songs like this, adding a new dimension to “The Firewatcher’s Daughter.” The track sounds like Carlile’s best Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge impression and it works. Loud guitar riffs meld with her belting about liberation and make for a fun callback to ‘70s and ‘80s rock classics.
In the follow-up to “Mainstream Kid,” the album is back to folk with “Beginning To Feel The Years.” The track is a sweet lullaby featuring Carlile’s dreamy voice over a consistently strumming acoustic guitar. Soft and simply lovely, the song is romantic and Carlile’s voice really shines on it.
Though the entire album gives off Fleetwood Mac vibes, “Wilder (We’re Chained)” is the most like the band. As Carlile sings over gorgeous harmonies and an acoustic guitar, the song feels like Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” or “The Chain.” “When everything else goes away, our love will still remain. We’re chained,” she sings.
Just like in “Wherever Is Your Heart” and “Beginning To Feel The Years,” she croons about enduring love, unaltered by distance or changing circumstances. Despite being about a similar topic, all three songs are presented in such different ways, the subject matter never feels identical, and it’s no coincidence they are the album’s three best songs.
“The Firewatcher’s Daughter” provides an introspective look at lasting love and what it means. With her strong voice, Carlile tells the story of longing and sprawling passion with great energy, felt from the first note to the last.