Brandi Carlile - Give Up the Ghost

Give Up the Ghost is Brandi Carlile's third album, a 2009 set of big-hearted folk-rock made with producer Rick Rubin.

By this point Carlile and her longtime collaborators, twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, had built a reputation as a fearsome live act, and the record keeps that chemistry front and centre without smoothing off the edges. The songs swing between barroom stomp, country ache and stripped-back confession, all carried by that voice, which can drop to a whisper one moment and soar to the rafters the next, often within the same song.

"Dreams" is the bright, anthemic heart of the record, a soaring chorus wrapped around restless longing. "Dying Day" rolls in with rollicking, defiant energy, while "Caroline" brings in Elton John for a warm duet with one of Carlile's biggest musical heroes. "That Year" slows to a hush for one of the album's most personal moments, Carlile's voice cracking in all the right places.

It sits neatly between her scrappier early records and the Americana stardom that would follow, and you can hear both in nearly every song.

Fans who came to her through later albums will find the roots of everything she became, and longtime listeners get a welcome chance to hear it spin again.