Your Life Is a Record

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.[2] The album was preceded by a music video for the track "Who You Thought I Was",[3] one of many songs on the album discussing a break-up Clark had after a 15-year relationship.[2] This was followed by a video for "Love Is a Fire" on February 14.[4]

The track "Better Boat" was recorded as a duet with Randy Newman.

Your Life Is a Record was met with positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator Metacritic. This release received a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on seven reviews.[5] Album of the Year rates the consensus at 81 with four reviews.[6]

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".[7] 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".[8] 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;[9] 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.[10] In assessing the album, Clark's career, and the general state of contemporary country music, The New Yorker's David Cantwell declared that "no one is writing better country songs than Brandy Clark is" and that this third album is her finest.[11] 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.[12]

A more mixed review came from Pitchfork's Seth Sodomsky, rating the album 7.5 out of 10, praising innovative arrangements and incisive and clever lyrics that will challenge listeners.[13] 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".[14] 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.[15]

1. "I'll Be the Sad Song" (Brandy Clark, Jesse Jo Dillon, Chase McGill) – 3:58
2. "Long Walk" (Clark, Jesse Frasure, Jay Joyce) – 2:39
3. "Love Is a Fire" (Clark, Joyce, Shane McAnally) – 4:01
4. "Pawn Shop" (Clark, Troy Verges) – 3:50
5. "Who You Thought I Was" (Clark, Joyce, Jonathan Singleton) – 3:09
6. "Apologies" (Clark, Scott Stepakoff, Forest Glen Whitehead) – 3:23
7. "Bigger Boat" (Clark, Adam Wright) – 3:34
8. "Bad Car" (Clark, Jason Saenz) – 3:02
9. "Who Broke Whose Heart" (Clark, McAnally) – 3:02
10. "Can We Be Strangers" (Clark, Clint Daniels, Dillon) – 3:29
11. "The Past Is the Past" (Clark, Barry Dean, Luke Laird) – 5:00

• Brandy Clark – bass guitar, acoustic guitar piano, backing and lead vocals
• Brent Anderson – backing vocals
• Court Blankenship – assistant production
• Diane Cohen – violin
• Daniel Gilbert – violin
• Jedd Hughes – bass guitar; dobro; engineering; acoustic, baritone, and electric guitar, mandolin
• Jay Joyce – bass guitar, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, mixing, Omnichord, production, programming, pump organ, synthesizer, vocals
• Jonathan Kirkscey – cello, saxophone
• Beth Luscombe – viola
• Jimmy Mansfield – assistant engineering
• Lannie McMillan – flute, saxophone
• Andrew Mendelson – mastering
• Bob Mitchell – engineering
• Jessica Munson – baritone saxophone, violin
• Randy Newman – vocals on "Bigger Boat"
• John Osborne – dobro, backing vocals
• Josh Osbourne – backing vocals
• Chris Phelps – photography
• Jennifer Puckett – viola
• Giles Reaves – bongos, claves, djembe, drums, acoustic guitar, handclapping, marimba, percussion, piano, programming, synthesizer, synthesizer bass, tambourine, triangle
• Jonathan Singleton – vocals
• Kirk Smothers – flute
• Lester Snell – arrangement, band leader, viola
• Jim Spake – cello, baritone saxophone
• Chris Taylor – assistant engineering
• Scott Thompson – trumpet
• Gary Topper – flute, violin
• Priscilla Tsai – flute, violin
• Stephan Walker – art direction
• Forest Whitehead – backing vocals
• Wen-Yih You – trumpet, violin

• List of 2020 albums

• Official website
• Interview with Vulture discussing the album
• Your Life Is a Record at MusicBrainz (list of releases)