Brandy Clark Announces New Album “Your Life Is A Record”
As first reported by Saving Country Music in mid-December, Grammy nominated, CMA-winning, and well-respected and admired songwriter Brandy Clark is prepping the release of a new album called Your Life Is A Record. To be released on March 6th by Warner Bros. Records, it will be Brandy’s third studio record. Both of her previous two albums were nominated for the Grammy’s Best Country Album.
Produced by Jay Joyce, who also worked on Brandy’s 2016 release Big Day in a Small Town, the album was recorded mostly stripped-down and acoustic. Brandy Clark, Jay Joyce, Giles Reaves, and Jedd Hughes laid down the majority of the tracks together, then electric instruments were added later. The album will also feature the Memphis Strings and Horns section arranged by Lester Snell.
Brandy says the album is country, but can also live in Americana, and is much more personal than her previous works. Some of Brandy’s co-writers on the record include Jessie Jo Dillon, Shane McAnally, Chase McGill, Jesse Frasure, Clint Daniels, Jonathan Singleton, Barry Dean, and Adam Wright. Ahead of the record, Brandy Clark has released a new single, “Who You Thought I Was” (listen below), co-written with Jessie Jo Dillon and Jonathan Singleton.
“The seed of the song came from something that John Prine said a couple of years ago at the Americana Awards,” Clark explains. “He walked out onstage at the Ryman and everyone stood up and clapped for what felt like five minutes. When everyone sat down, he said with a little laugh, ‘Well, I’m John Prine, but I’d like to go back to being who you thought I was.’ Man…that hit me. The songwriter in me instantly knew it was a song and the heart in me knew it was how I had felt in my own life many times. I mean who of us hasn’t let somebody down or wanted to be the version of ourselves that someone who loved us thought we were?”
Originally from Washington State, Brandy Clark got her start as a songwriter most notably when she helped pen The Band Perry hit “Better Dig Two.” Since then she’s written or co-written critically-acclaimed songs from Kacey Musgraves, Wade Bowen, Sunny Sweeney, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, and many more.
Your Life is a Record is now available for pre-order.
TRACK LIST:
1. I’ll Be the Sad Song
2. Long Walk
3. Love is a Fire
4. Pawn Shop
5. Who You Thought I Was
6. Apologies
7. Bigger Boat (feat. Randy Newman)
8. Bad Car
9. Who Broke Whose Heart
10. Can We Be Strangers
11. The Past is the Past
Blockman
January 10, 2020 @ 10:04 am
I think she should change her name so I don’t mix her up with the other lesbian Grammy nominated Brandy(i). Anyone else feeling this? Trig you ever have this problem?
Megan
January 10, 2020 @ 10:13 am
Do you also confuse George Jones & George Strait? C’mon man, grow up.
Blockman
January 10, 2020 @ 10:16 am
I think it’s the ‘C’ in the last name that puts it over the top to be honest.
618creekrat
January 10, 2020 @ 11:16 am
Maybe this will help straighten out your confusion:
https://youtu.be/vonCCOpJqfs
wonkabar23
January 10, 2020 @ 11:41 am
Blockman – You are trash.
I love the first half of this song, but the second half is a little cluttered. I’m looking forward to this album.
albert
January 11, 2020 @ 1:02 am
yup …see my comment below
JW
January 10, 2020 @ 3:12 pm
And both also from Washington state. You’re joking, but I made that mistake many times before I had either of their albums. Now it seems obvious.
hoptowntiger94
January 10, 2020 @ 10:52 am
I’m confident Jay Joyce will ruin this project (and my ears).
Trigger
January 10, 2020 @ 11:05 am
The problem with Jay Joyce is when he gets to thinking too much is never enough. But if they went with a stripped down/acoustic approach, it could turn out get. He produced Brandy’s last album too, and I thought it turned out pretty great. It’s when he starts going for radio hits when he can get you into trouble.
Cool Lester Smooth
January 10, 2020 @ 11:14 am
The production on this single is a bit busy.
Brandy’s too good of a songwriter for me to dislike it…but it’s a bit offputting.
hoptowntiger94
January 10, 2020 @ 12:41 pm
Too many artificial sounds. I find myself saying “what the fuck was that?” and “what kind of instrument makes that noise?”
Bill from Wisconsin
January 12, 2020 @ 9:04 am
Yes the fake sounding percussion stuff is annoying and draws your ears away from the song itself. I would rather hear it with that stripped out.
SG
January 10, 2020 @ 1:00 pm
The early single from her last album sounded a bit electronic and pop, but I thought the album turned out to be great (and didn’t sound like that single). Curious to see how this turns out – hopefully it will be as good as the last 2.
Gena R.
January 11, 2020 @ 10:09 am
100% agreed. 🙂 I thought this was a helluva lot better lead-off single than “Girl Next Door” — hopefully it bodes well for the rest of the album (I’m especially looking forward to the track with Randy Newman).
Blackh4t
January 10, 2020 @ 2:53 pm
Am I the only one who finds her moralizing to be trite and one dimensional?
I can’t get over ‘the day she got divorced’ where the woman calls the married guy for a rebound and somehow that’s the guy’s fault.
But Stripes is a lot better that “way too pretty for prison” especially because Miranda and Maren don’t seem to realise its still illegal to hire a hitman.
SG
January 10, 2020 @ 7:00 pm
I’m a fan, but don’t think you’re totally off base. She definitively romanticizes some version
of the simple life, and maybe over simplifies things sometimes. But personally I find that stripped down simple approach to be refreshing, and maybe archetypal?
Blackh4t
January 10, 2020 @ 7:18 pm
I think it works when she’s being romantic or positive. Just when she gets negative it seems uncalled for.
I still generally like her work, but she sound more like someone I happen to agree with rather than someone who would be a sympathetic friend.
Megan
January 12, 2020 @ 9:01 pm
Hmm. I’ve never heard that part as moralizing. When something traumatic happens, like a divorce, you kind of live in a crazy head space for a while. I’ve always heard that verse as just kind of acknowledging that she’s in a bad place even though life has to keep turning around her.
albert
January 11, 2020 @ 1:01 am
I watched the video and by the end I was pretty confused .
I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer but as a songwriter I’m just gonna say this idea seems like its trying so hard to find a way to us and yet still up back where it started: an idea
I’m a Brandy fan but her songs are often hit and miss and you can guess where this one sits for me .
Greg Green
January 19, 2020 @ 6:18 am
Yes, it’s a great line by Prine and goes a long way in explaining why so may of his songs have long lasting relevance. But Brandy seems to have wandered off somewhere else with it.