Collin Herring,
The Other Side of Kindness



Label: Gravestone Picnic Records

(5 out of 5)

Over the past year, there's no album I've listened to more than Collin Herring's The Other Side of Kindness. And yet, until now, there's been no review — this despite the fact I've raved about the album to just about everyone I know, and played it for just about all who enter my home. It's an amazing album — packed with beautifully depressive introspection, wonderfully literate songwriting, and plain great music.

Of course, many of you already know this. The Other Side of Kindness debuted in the top spot at Miles of Music and finished as its #5 bestseller last year. The Fort Worth Weekly, Dallas Morning News, and Dallas Observer lauded the album, as did mainstream and alternative music press around the country. And many around his Fort Worth stomping grounds know Herring as an Acoustic Mafia member with the likes of Tim Locke and John Price.

Yet when I mention Herring's name to friends generally knowledgeable about music, I get blank stares in return. So this is for the uninitiated who haven't yet caught onto the cult of Collin.

The Other Side of Kindness begins with a bang. The rocking "Back of Your Mind" (listen) is a Charlie Kaufman-esque exploration of the jilted lover's dejection: What was that thought that you just lost / And now you can't seem to find / Just let it slip / It's just me losing my grip / In the back of your mind. With "Aphorism" (listen) and "Sinkhole of Love" (listen), plus the later "Motorcade" (listen), Herring shifts from guitar-driven rock to the lo-fi Americana that predominates over the rest of the album. Each of these songs matches the songwriter's beautiful despair with the gorgeous pedal steel of his father, Ben Roi Herring. "Nobody Much Longer" (listen) and the atmospheric "Cauterize" (listen) follow a similar trajectory, minus the pedal steel accents. Instrumentals "Headliner" (listen) and "Flower Mound" (listen) remove lyrics from the mix. But not all is Americana, as Herring flashes his rock edge on the vaguely sinister "Lazy Wind" (listen) and "Into the Morning" (listen).

I could go into detail describing the songs and summarizing Herring's exquisite songwriting, but it's really best that you listen for yourself. Each song is amazing, and never in the course of the past year have I tired of listening to The Other Side of Kindness.

Herring recently finished recording his third album (his first was 2002's Avoiding the Circus), and needless to say I await its release with eager anticipation.

January 19, 2006