As her new album opens, Brandi Carlile is having a slight argument with herself. The title track of the record, “Returning to Myself,” wonders aloud about how much value there is in going deeply inward for solitary reflection, versus constant connectedness. It’s a question the singer-songwriter had to resolve for herself, to some degree, because she knew her season of being her friend Joni Mitchell’s right-hand woman in her current musical endeavors was ending, and also that it was closing in on time to start in on her first solo album in four years. Perhaps she needed to give herself a pep talk, or permission, at least, that it was all right to go off indulge in splendid isolation.

But the debate in that title song is not really a fair fight. Carlile has often said that a big way in wh

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