Today, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile unveiled the highly anticipated music video for "Right on Time": a new single off her forthcoming album In These Silent Days. To the surprise — and delight — of many fans, the video was directed by a fave Hollywood celeb: Friends star Courteney Cox. As it turns out, Cox and Carlile are indeed close friends. (Makes sense. Carlile seems like a Monica.)
You can watch their shimmering, artistic collaboration below.
"Right on Time"
Country superstar Brandi Carlile stays busy. After penning her best-selling memoir Broken Horses, she and bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth hunkered down to create new music, inspired by the quietude of the pandemic. Aptly titled In These Silent Days, the album features ten songs that meditate on "acceptance, faith, loss and love." In her poetic way, Carlile described the creative process in a press release:
"Never before have the twins and I written an album during a time of such uncertainty and quiet solitude. I never imagined that I'd feel so exposed and weird as an artist without the armor of a costume, the thrill of an applause and the platform of the sacred stage.
Despite all this, the songs flowed through—pure and unperformed, loud and proud, joyful and mournful. Written in my barn during a time of deep and personal reckoning.
There's plenty reflection...but mostly it's a celebration.
This album is what drama mixed with joy sounds like. It's resistance and gratitude, righteous anger and radical forgiveness.
It's the sound of these silent days."
That full album is out on October 1. And after teasing the release for days, finally, a single off In These Silent Days has become available for the first time. "Right on Time," you could say. Watch that graceful, emotional music video above. And peep the special director: Courteney Cox! With "Right on Time," Cox has crafted a wondrous visual expression to match the angst and loneliness in Carlile's lyric. The dynamic piece bodes well for the rest of the album.
"Right on Time" is not Cox's first foray into directing. The actress directed the Lifetime drama TalhotBlond in 2012 and the 2014 comedy Just Before I Go as well as 12 episodes of her ABC sitcom Cougar Town.
Read More: Brandi Carlile Announces 2022 Girls Just Wanna Weekend
Brandi Carlile and Courteney Cox's Friendship
"Lisa Kudrow, this is for you," Ed Sheeran announces at the start the star-studded video, posted in June. In it, Sheeran, Courteney Cox, Elton John, and Brandi Carlile — characteristically strumming an acoustic guitar — belt out the lyrics to "Tiny Dancer," er, "Young Tony Danza," as Kudrow's Friends' character Phoebe would have you believe. (She'd misinterpreted the romantic song as being about the Who's the Boss actor. Classic Phoebs.) "Hold me close young Tony Danza," the celebs croon together. Naturally, the footage went viral on social media; it felt like another Friends: the Reunion of sorts. And for many excited fans, the video was also an introduction to the surprising friendship between Cox and Carlile!
Apparently, Carlile saw Cox's cover of "The Joke" — her Grammy-winning song off By the Way, I Forgive You — on Instagram. And slid into the actress' DMs. Of Cox's Instagram video, Carlile told Entertainment Weekly: "It's astonishing how f***ing good [it] was. It was just great. Courteney's a badass piano player. So we met on Instagram and bonded over piano music."
Soon, the pair was planning a jam session at Cox's place! For a while, the pandemic delayed those plans. But now, reunited again, Carlile and Cox have music to make. Hopefully "Right on Time" is just the beginning!
Courteney Cox's Cover of "The Joke"
In Cox's own cover of "The Joke," she accompanies Gary Lightbody, lead vocalist of Snow Patrol, on the piano.
