Give Up the Ghost: Album Review

I recently received a digital download of a new album, Give Up the Ghost by Brandi Carlile thanks to the One2One Network. I had not ever heard of her before but was willing to give my thoughts on the album. She's kind of been labeled as a singer in several different genres, but there were a few songs on the album that made her sound a little folksy to me. She does a song called "Caroline" with Elton John on the piano that was pretty catchy - it had some of the same rhythms as "Leavin' On a Jet Plane" and I could hear her doing a nice cover of that song too.

Though this album was a #1 seller on iTunes shortly after it was released earlier in October, I had a hard time really getting into it. A couple of the songs are sung in softer tones, and others she is just belting it out and nearly screaming. While others might appreciate that she has many styles of singing and song-writing, I suppose I was hoping for a little more consistency. If I had a copy of the lyrics I might have been able to give a more thorough review but I had a hard time understanding her lyrics (or hearing them enough to understand them) on a few of the songs, but I did think that the music was generally pretty good.

I have a couple more albums I'll be reviewing in the next couple weeks...stay tuned.