''By the Way, I Forgive You'' is the sixth studio album by

Brandi Carlile Brandi Marie Carlile (born June 1, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Her music spans different genres, including folk rock, alternative country, Americana, and classic rock. Throughout her career, she has received eleven Gramm ...

, released on February 16, 2018. " The Joke" was released as the album's

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

. The album was co-produced by

Dave Cobb Dave Cobb (born July 9, 1974) is an American record producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for producing the work of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, The Highwomen, Take That, Rival ...

and

Shooter Jennings Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings (born May 19, 1979) is an American musician and Grammy award winning record producer. He is the son of country singers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. In a career spanning three decades, Jennings has explore ...

. The

album art An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to: * the printed paperboard covers typically used to package: ** sets of and 78 ...

is an original painting by

Scott Avett Scott Yancey Avett (born June 19, 1976) is one of the lead singers and founding members of the folk-rock band, The Avett Brothers. Avett primarily plays the banjo but also plays harmonica, drums, piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar for t ...

. The album won a

Grammy Award for Best Americana Album The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors ...

in 2019, as well being nominated for Album of the Year.

Promotion

Singles

The album's lead single, "The Joke", was released on November 13, 2017. Of the track, Carlile said, "There are so many people feeling misrepresented oday..so many people feeling unloved. Boys feeling marginalized and forced into these kind of awkward shapes of masculinity that they do or don't belong in... so many men and boys are trans or disabled or shy. Little girls who got so excited for the last election, and are dealing with the fallout. The song is just for people that feel under-represented, unloved or illegal." The official music video for the track was released on February 16, 2018, the same day ''By the Way, I Forgive You'' dropped. Former U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

named the track as one of his favorites of 2017. "The Joke" later reached number 4 on the

Adult Alternative Songs Adult Alternative Airplay (also known as Triple A or Triple A Airplay, and formerly Adult Alternative Songs and Triple A Songs) is a record chart currently published by ''Billboard'' that ranks the most popular songs on adult album alternative radi ...

chart and 43 on the

Hot Rock Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alternati ...

chart. A remix of "Party of One" featuring English singer-songwriter

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they rose to prominence when they featured on Disclosure (band), Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch (song), Latch", which peaked at number eleven on ...

was released as the second single on October 17, 2018. Upon release, it was announced that a portion of the profits from the song would benefit Children In Conflict, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

that aids children affected by war. The song reached number 29 on the

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

radio chart. A music video of the album version starring

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was released in December 2018.

Television and radio performances

Carlile appeared on television multiple times to promote the album and its singles. In January 2018, Carlile performed "The Joke" on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

''. In April, she performed "The Joke" and "Whatever You Do" on ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...

'' and "The Joke" on ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...

''. In August, she performed "Hold Out Your Hand" on ''

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''.

Composition

"The Mother" commemorates Carlile's daughter. The song "Fulton County Jane Doe" is based on the real-life story of an unidentified murder victim in Fulton County,

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Critical reception

''By the Way, I Forgive You'' received positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 81 out of 100, which indicates "Universal acclaim" based on ten reviews. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' referred to "Party of One" as a "delicate masterpiece". ''Rolling Stone'' also rated the entire album as the 12th best of 2018 on its list of the 50 best albums of 2018.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

rated the album as the 19th best of 2018.

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rated the album as the 36th best of 2018. ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'' rated it as the 22nd best album of 2018. ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' rated it as the 63rd best album of the year.

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rated it as the 9th best album. ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' rated ''By the Way, I Forgive You'' as the 11th best album of 2018. Chris Willman of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' rated the album as the 2nd best of 2018. Kevin Coffey of the ''

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'' also rated it as the 2nd best of the year.

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

– lead vocals, guitar (tracks 3 through 7, 9), piano (2, 10) * Tim Hanseroth – guitar (4, 5, 8, 9), electric guitar (2, 3, 6, 7), bass (1) *

– guitar, high string guitar (4) *

– keyboards (1, 2, 5, 9), piano (1, 5, 6 through 9), organ (2, 6, 7), electric piano and synth (3) * Phil Hanseroth – bass (2, 3, 4, 5, 7 through 10) * Chris Powell – drums * Alicia Enstrom – violin (2) * David Angell – violin (2) * Kristin Wilkinson – viola (2) * Carole Rabinowitz – cello (2) * Josh Neumann – cello (2, 8, 9) Strings arranged by

Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Shawn Phillips, Elton Joh ...

(tracks 5, 10)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Albums produced by Dave Cobb Brandi Carlile albums Elektra Records albums Grammy Award for Best Americana Album Orchestral pop albums