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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Collin Herring
Past Life Crashing
Independent
"This nation's driveway turns right off the highway," Collin Herring wisely observes on his third album Past Life Crashing. The troubling thing though is that it's Herring who seems to be at the wheel. Filled with sandstorms, lingering arguments, unread letters and ill-advised late night decisions, Past Life Crashing is a stirring collection of roots rock punctuated by acute emotional devastation. Which, my friends, make these songs such killers. The punchy jangle of "Yard Cars" illustrates how easy it is to get sucked into the darkness; "Sidekick" is a wistful acoustic number about loneliness, while the rippling "Pictures" finds the Fort Worth native asking, "Is there bad air between us?" Of course there is and he knows it. Actually, Herring knows a lot of things—he knows what will happen if he calls the girl in the middle of the night, he knows what will happen if he stops avoiding the truth and he knows what will happen if he decides to get it all together: sooner or later he'll screw it all up again. A crushing revelation, but Herring seems to work best under the influence of a demolished spirit: check out the hushed regret of "I Guess" or the violin-drenched "Punches" which finds Herring admitting, "I used to be a warrior." Every number here is like a glimpse into an open wound. And grisly of a look as that may be, it sounds terrific.
—Alex Green
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