KASSI ASHTON & PARKER MCCOLLUM - Sounds Like Something I'd Say - MCA Records Nashville/Interscope Records

With a breakout year in 2024 that saw Kassi Ashton earning an ACM nomination for New Female Artist of the Year and notching a Top 40 hit with “Called Crazy,” she stands firmly on elevating next level success in 2025 with the announcement of her forthcoming deluxe album, Made From The Dirt: The Blooms (out April 25).

She teams up with Parker McCollum today on the first of the five new songs to be included on the deluxe package, “Sounds Like Something I’d Say,” hyping early anticipation while providing a strong look at things still to come.

Enhancing the melancholy mood with the subtle simplicity of the instrumental glide, the raw edges tremble the delicate touch of Ashton’s voice, piercing the heart of internal conflict as she straddles feelings of comfort within the discomfort of a past heartache that she’s allowed to become tomorrow’s regrets.

Succumbing to her go to vice of falling into the embrace of her on again/off again ex, a confessional tone wraps emphatically around lyrical imagery that washes the next day perspective in remorseful guilt as she recalls what she couldn’t even remember doing in her moment of weakness the night before - dialing him up, inviting him over, and not stopping it from crossing the line.

McCollum, for his part, offers an outlook that’s toned as one of comforting reassurance, understanding the depth of her contradicting feelings in the aftermath of what never should’ve been while also dissecting his own last night, moments of weakness in allowing her back in again.

With a slight, melodic lift in the chorus that expertly matches the swirling emotional impact of facing the mirror of truth about who they are and why they are this way with each other, the uniqueness of each gifted vocalist flawlessly blends.

“It sounds like somethin' I'd say
In the midst of lonеly and the Marlboro haze
It sounds better in the dark than in the light of day
But it sounds like somethin' I'd say”

Pulling ideals of the classic country duets that lined the foundations of the genre, two of today’s most buzzed about artists transparently face the fact to one another, “If I told you I loved you, I sure didn't mean to,” tormenting the deeply wounded soul while living with the sorrow of their own choices to give into fleeting temptations as a temporary cure for the lonely heart.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)