| Your Life Is a Record | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Brandy Clark |
| Cover: | Brandy Clark - Your Life Is a Record.jpg |
| Alt: | A photo of Clark standing in the desert by a jukebox |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 39:07 |
| Label: | Warner |
| Producer: | Jay Joyce |
| Prev Title: | Live from Los Angeles |
| Prev Year: | 2017 |
| Next Title: | Brandy Clark |
| Next Year: | 2023 |
Your Life Is a Record is the third studio album by American country music artist Brandy Clark. It was released on March 6, 2020, via Warner Records. It includes the single "Who You Thought I Was". The album has received positive critical reception for Clark's songwriting skills. Despite wide acclaim, it was not as commercially successful as her previous albums, peaking at #46 the country charts and not making the Billboard Top 200 among all albums. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
On February 12, 2021, Clark announced that a deluxe edition of the album would be released on March 5, 2021, with six new songs, including live versions of "Pawn Shop" and "Who You Thought I Was" and a new version of "The Past Is the Past" featuring Lindsey Buckingham.[1]
As the album was nearing completion, Clark and producer Jay Joyce made a conscious effort to avoid country music cliches, using experimental musicians and strings to make sounds unlike her previous work; the singer had anxiety about if Warner Records could successfully market it past the tepid reception to her 2016 album Big Day in a Small Town. To start the recordings, Clark and Joyce began with a simple acoustic combo and only later added electric elements or string arrangements to enhance the stripped-down recordings. The album was preceded by a music video for the track "Who You Thought I Was", one of many songs on the album discussing a break-up Clark had after a 15-year relationship. This was followed by a video for "Love Is a Fire" on February 14.
The track "Better Boat" was recorded as a duet with Randy Newman.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Clark decided to release a deluxe edition of the album that included older recordings, a brief live performance for MusiCares, and the new composition "Remember Me Beautiful".
Album of the Year rates the consensus at 81 with four reviews.
The editorial staff of AllMusic gave the album 4.5 out of five stars, with reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine summing up that it's "an album that feels like a classic not just through its sound but through its depth of feeling". For Slate, Carl Wilson wrote that the release is Clark's "most personal album" yet and praises the maturity of her songwriting: "Clark has mostly left behind the exercises in women-empowerment snark and spunk that her previous records leaned on for infusions of energy, a recourse that's become its own cliché in women’s country". In a brief preview for the week in country, Billboard highlighted the release, with Annie Reuter calling Clark's "adept songwriting" the center of the album; the publication later had a full review from Tom Roland who compared this album with Clarks's previous ones to find it the most authentic songwriting and performance of her career. In assessing the album, Clark's career, and the general state of contemporary country music, The New Yorkers David Cantwell declared that "no one is writing better country songs than Brandy Clark is" and that this third album is her finest. In American Songwriter, Jason Scott gave the album 4.5 out of five, joining voices calling it her finest release, explaining Clark's strength as musician as well as producer Jay Joyce's ability to augment her voice.
A more mixed review came from Pitchforks Sam Sodomsky, rating the album 7.5 out of 10, praising innovative arrangements and incisive and clever lyrics that will challenge listeners. Reviewing the album for Exclaim!, Kyle Mullin gave the release a seven out of 10, noting the same qualities and suggesting that other songwriters will "daydream about following in her footsteps". Chris Willman of Variety calls Clark as a songwriter "the necessary next stop [after the success of [[Kacey Musgraves]]] for anyone joining this program already in progress and finding that Music City is the richest source of fingerpicking female singer-songwriters with crystalline voices, classic twang-pop sensibilities and a knack for sweet devastation" and gives a positive review of this album for its myriad looks at relationships.
| Issuer | Award | Recipient | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Grammy Awards | Best Country Solo Performance | "Who You Thought I Was" | |
| Best Country Album | Your Life Is a Record | |||
| 2021 | Best American Roots Performance | "Same Devil" | ||
Deluxe edition bonus tracks
| Chart (2020) | Peak | |
|---|---|---|
| US Top Album Sales (Billboard) | 25 | |
| US Top Current Album Sales (Billboard) | 25 |