7.27.2011

LOVE IT - Brandi Carlile, Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony.

I love this woman's music. I love her melodies, I love her Melissa Etheridge-y pseudo-yodel when she gets into a song, and now I love the fact that she's captured the feeling of a concert performance with a symphony filling out her thumping rock-pop sound.

This is the best live album I've heard in a super long time. It opens with the tuning of the symphony, and highlights Carlile's breathtaking covers (John, Simon, Cohen) and beefed-up originals. The audience-participation harmonies on "Turpentine" tug at the heart strings; I can't imagine how cool it must have been to be in the theater at that moment. The energy and emotions projecting from the speakers for the disc's hour running length will linger with you long after you've finished listening.