Carolina

iTunes Review

Even though he is a self-professed student of classicists like Merle Haggard and George Strait, Eric Church puts the old country formulas through a lot of unexpected twists on his sophomore album, Carolina. It’s not only that Church namechecks William Faulkner on “Love Your Love the Most.” It’s his overall disposition. Sure, he sings about drinking old flames off his mind in “Ain’t Killed Me Yet” and revels in the journeyman’s lifestyle in “Those I’ve Loved” (in which he calls his songs his “best friends”), but Church seems less indebted to prevailing trends than his peers. Whereas most young singers extol the virtues of small town life, “Where She Told Me To Go” uses a small roadside hamlet as a metaphor for the mistakes the narrator has made. The song also contains what is surely the slyest punch-line of any country song this year: “What do you know / I think I wound up where she told me to go.” For all its subtlety and cleverness, Carolina has a sound that is brighter and harder-edged than Church’s debut. It’s a combination that will surely please country fans in search of a little smarts to go with their Saturday night sing-alongs.