Brandi Carlile knows what she’s doing.
“The Story” singer has been teasing her sapphic fans with pictures of her sexy hands before announcing the release of the music video for her new song “Returning to Myself” today.
The black and white close-up photos of her hands seem custom-made to appeal to lesbians across the country, who already can’t get enough of the queer icon and her music.
We all know hands are hot. Katy O’Brian’s wife proved that last year when she pointed out just how sexy the Love Lies Bleeding star’s hands are.
And now Carlile is flooding our timeline with steamy, artistic shots of her endlessly sexy hands that we all know are oh so good at playing the guitar.
Carlile may be teasing her new music and upcoming album, but the sapphics in the comments section were focused on her hands. "It’s the nails for me," one person wrote, while someone else commented, "Y’all. @brandicarlile is starting an onlyfans?"
The title song was dropped today, ahead of the release of her next album, Returning to Myself, on October 24.
Although this will be Carlile’s first album since she released Who Believes in Angels? with Elton John back in April and her first solo album since In These Silent Days back in 2021, she says this is “not a ‘solo’ album” because she’s “always alone and never alone at the same time…,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the release date for the new album.
“It’s just that it comes at a time where I’m reflecting and realizing that learning to stand alone is something that people are supposed to do when they’re young,” she captioned the album cover that features Carlile’s face surrounded by three hands fixing her hair and clothing. "Like skiing or chickenpox. That if we miss our chance when the pain tolerance is at its highest, we may never do it.”
She continued, “Fine with me. I’d rather fight off ‘aloneness’ forever. Why is it heroic to untether when the tense work of togetherness is so much more interesting?…because I don’t want to do it. Because I don’t want to return to myself. And that’s why I will.”
And then Carlile concluded the post with a reference to the album name, “Returning to myself is just returning me to you.”
You can listen to the title track and watch the music video today, and preorder the album before its release on October 24, 2025. See the full music video below.