Few artists have a backstory as dramatically suited to a project called Reincarnation as Candi Carpenter. Once a gospel prodigy performing with their family’s band, Carpenter went on to tour with country legends, release a Billboard-charting single, and make their Grand Ole Opry debut. Now they are taking all of that history and throwing it into a six-track alt-rock experiment about becoming someone new.
At the heart of Reincarnation is a fascinating contradiction. Carpenter grew up in an environment where certain parts of identity, sexuality, and artistic expression were treated as things to fear, yet those very subjects have become central to their creative voice. The EP confronts that history directly without allowing it to define the future. “Biblically Accurate Angel,” for example, transforms shame and religious conditioning into a celebration of beauty and sexuality.
There is also plenty of existential weight here. “The Fear of Being Human Remains” examines the terror of consciousness and embodiment, while “Inside the Simulation” questions what is real after a childhood shaped by fears of death and eternal punishment. Yet Carpenter never allows the darkness to completely overwhelm the project. Love, rebellion, creativity, and self-determination repeatedly emerge as alternatives to fear.
The accompanying short film pushes the project into even stranger territory. Zombies, garbage, apocalyptic imagery, and deliberately obvious symbolism create a world that feels simultaneously ridiculous and unsettling. It is a fitting visual counterpart to an EP that refuses to behave like a conventional rock record. Carpenter is not simply making music here. They are building an entire universe around it.
What ultimately makes Reincarnation work is its sincerity. Beneath the theatricality and genre experimentation is an artist trying to heal, understand their past, and make peace with the person they are becoming. Carpenter’s declaration that they are their own church captures the project’s spirit perfectly. This is not simply a reinvention of sound. It is an assertion of freedom.