Personal History

Having released her first album in 1987, Mary Chapin Carpenter has had a remarkable life and career, with many stories to tell. Shes chosen to make some of those stories the basis of her 2025 album Personal History. If Carpenter wanted to make a biographical concept album, she doubtless would have plenty to draw from, but Personal History finds her approaching the project in her own way. Rather than tying the material to a narrative through line, she has instead offered us 11 songs that play like journal entries or a series of short stories, with each track providing a different insight into who she is and how she became the woman she is in 2025. Carpenter shares her thoughts on growing older and coming to terms with the past ("Coda"), the mysteries of the passage of time ("What Did You Miss"), the people who informed her creative process ("Paint + Turpentine"), pondering things that could have been ("The Night We Never Met"), the complicated notions of fate and faith ("New Religion"), and the pleasures of solitude ("Girl and Her Dog"). If these songs arent explicitly autobiographical, they certainly sound like they could be, and they feel deeply personal, both in their lyrics and in Carpenters vocals, as intimate and honest as a conversation at 3 a.m. Personal History was recorded at Peter Gabriels Real World Studio, which has become one of her favored work environments, with Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman handling production, and while theyre capable of crafting full bodied arrangements on songs like "The Saving Things" and "Bitter Ender," most of this album matches the tone of the songs, intelligently spare and adding just enough detail to reinforce the emotions of her performances. Since launching her own Lambent Light label with 2016s The Things That We Are Made Of, Carpenter has used her creative autonomy wisely, allowing herself a freedom and a willingness to push her creative boundaries that wasnt audible in her work for Columbia, and Personal History is a triumph, offering an unguarded look into her heart and her soul. ~ Mark Deming