"There are reasons why the body stays in motion / At the moment only demons come to mind" ... Carlile hasn't lost her way with a couplet that's for sure, and nor has she lost her facility for Americana warmth and melodicism combined with vocal rawness and well placed drama. All were there in 2007's The Story and 2012's Bear Creek and presumably in the other albums she's released too along the way to this one, from 2018 and her latest.
By The Way, I Forgive You is full of good stuff, ranging across lots of ground. The first three songs - "Every Time I Hear That Song", "The Joke" and "Hold Out Your Hand" - are all excellent in strikingly different ways, respectively nailing relaxed country, anthemic folk-rock power ballad (she's done this kind of thing before, eg "The Story", and it might be her sweetest spot), and Rilo Kiley-esque country-rock / power-pop. And there's plenty to come after that - the build and release of "Whatever You Do", the pep of "Sugartooth", the rise of "Harder To Forgive". Quality.
