Brandi Carlile Details ‘Return To Myself (Sad Gay Version)’ Album

Brandi Carlile will release an expanded edition of her album Returning To Myself digitally on September 25 via Interscope Records/Lost Highway, titled Returning To Myself (Sad Gay Version). The collection reimagines all 10 songs from the original album, with Carlile returning to Long Pond Studio to co-produce four tracks with The National's Aaron Dessner.

The set includes a collaboration with composer and electronic musician Jon Hopkins on the single “Human,” as well as a new version of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes.” Carlile provided the following insight into the revamped project:

“When I was a teenager, I loved to toy with my own emotions by actively seeking out songs in a genre that very few are willing to call by its rightful name. The ‘Sad Gay’ genre. You don’t have to actually be gay to let it break your heart into a thousand pieces, it will do that against your will.

“I would sit at the edge of my bed and listen to ‘Everybody Hurts’ by R.E.M., ‘Language Or the Kiss’ by the Indigo Girls, or watch Sinead O’ Connor singing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ while that single black and white tear ran down her face. I’d listen to Kate Bush singing ‘This Woman’s Work,’ Tracy Chapman’s ‘The Promise,’ the Philadelphia soundtrack, the City of Angels soundtrack. I would do this just to feel myself spiral into pure emotional self-indulgence in ways only music like this could permit, making me a very sad gay.

“Returning To Myself has been such a profound journey. It’s taken me to places I never imagined and taught me a lot about my disdain for the solitary, as well as my own ridiculous pattern of self-avoidance. Long may it continue. I reimagined this album in this way because I want to be brought back to the edge of my bed again and I want to bring you with me. I rebuilt the whole thing for you and for myself. This one is for us… the sad gays wherever you are. This is Returning To Myself (Sad Gay Version)…”

Carlile’s Human Tour kicked off its next leg last night with a sold-out show at Portland, Maine’s Cross Insurance Arena. The tour continues with dates across the U.S. into the fall, and Carlile is scheduled to tour Europe next spring.

Stream “Human (feat. Jon Hopkins) (Sad Gay Version)” below:

Returning To Myself (Sad Gay Version) Tracklist

1. Returning To Myself
2. Human
3. A Woman Oversees
4. A War With Time
5. Anniversary
6. Church & State
7. Joni
8. You Without Me
9. No One Knows Us
10. A Long Goodbye
11. Human (feat. Jon Hopkins) (Sad Gay Version)
12. Returning To Myself (Sad Gay Version)
13. You Without Me (Sad Gay Version)
14. No One Knows Us (Sad Gay Version)
15. Anniversary (Sad Gay Version)
16. And So It Goes (Sad Gay Version)
17. A Woman Oversees (Sad Gay Version)
18. Church & State (Sad Gay Version)
19. A War With Time (Sad Gay Version)
20. Joni (Sad Gay Version)
21. A Long Goodbye (Sad Gay Version)