Hear Brandy Clark’s Defiant ‘Girl Next Door’
“Girl Next Door,” the first single from Brandy Clark‘s upcoming sophomore LP, proves that the singer-songwriter has kept her decidedly country edge. The hard-charging diatribe that asserts “If you want the girl next door, then go next door,” is another prime example of Clark’s wicked sense of humor and deft wordplay, as she warns potential partners that “my house and my mouth and my mind get kind of trashy/ I’ve never been to jail, but hell, I wouldn’t put it past me.”
The new track was produced by Jay Joyce with the same aggressive, modern-country sound that he has applied to acclaimed albums from Little Big Town and Eric Church, but was executed in an entirely different way than Clark’s Grammy-nominated debut 12 Stories.
“The first record I did, everything started with me and a guitar and a click track,” Clark tells Rolling Stone Country. “This time, Jay got the band that was going to play on the record and we rehearsed for five days. A lot of the rehearsal is what ended up being on the record.”
Clark hints that the new record will be something of a concept album and says of the producer, “He’s really pushing me in the best ways. He goes down every road with a song. A lot of times you end up right where you started, but you figure something out in the process. He’s a genius.”
“Girl Next Door” once again teams Clark with frequent collaborators Shane McAnally, a co-writer with Clark and Kacey Musgraves on the CMA Song of the Year, “Follow Your Arrow,” and Jessie Jo Dillon, the daughter of Hall of Fame songwriter Dean Dillon. Clark is currently on the road with Jennifer Nettles and the CMT Next Women of Country Tour.
The follow-up to 12 Stories is expected to be released this summer.