Reminder: Our album reviews will now be ranks of the songs on that particular album from worst to best.
14. See You Again
Is it an awful song? No. It just sounds extremely similar to a song called Lessons Learned from Some Hearts. The end result is boring cliche lyrics with music that hasn’t matured. Thus, we get a second rate track from a previous album.
13. Two Black Cadillacs
A story song that almost plays like a darker Before He Cheats about a husband who is murdered by his wife and his wife’s mistress. Does a guy really deserve to die for cheating? The song tries entirely too hard.
12. Thank God For Hometowns
Admittedly, it’s an accurate song for anyone who has ever lived in a small town. That said, this is a regression for Carrie and sounds like something we should have heard on a previous CD. There are some nice moments here though.
11. Forever Changed
There seems to be a pattern happening with more recent Carrie songs. It started last album with Mama’s Song and Temporary Home. These dumb story songs are a dime a dozen in country music. This is a prime example of such a song. The music is pretty, and one can appreciate the way Carrie doesn’t over sing. But for a woman to be singing lyrics about being “forever named” when she gets married is just strange to me. This is 2012, not a Twilight movie.
10. Blown Away
I guess this is Carrie’s idea of what “dark” means. I was expecting a little more from the title track. Strangely, this is rumored to be her second single but I can’t really understand why, because as you can see, there are eight better tracks here that haven’t been released yet. It’s a good song with a powerful story, but dark lyrics don’t necessarily make a dark song.
9. Who Are You
A beautiful love song unlike anything Carrie has ever really sung before and a great way to end the album.
8. Nobody Ever Told You
Despite the random and distracting “aoomp aoomp” that pops up about halfway through, this track is exactly the direction in which Carrie should be going. One of a couple acoustic tracks that places Carrie’s voice with a guitar/banjo with lyrics fit for a country queen. More of this please.
7. Wine After Whiskey
This might be the truest sounding country ballad Carrie has ever done. It sounds like something Trisha Yearwood or LeAnn Womack would have sung at the height of their careers.
6. Leave Love Alone
A great self aware uptempo similar in style to The More Boys I Meet.
5. Good In Goodbye
Despite its gimmicky title and mediocre chorus, the verses in this song are brilliant, chill inducing and extremely mature sounding. Carrie has never sounded better.
4. Good Girl
It’s very obvious why this was the lead single and why it starts the album. Similar in sound to many of Carrie’s other uptempo “fuck you” tracks (Undo It, Cowboy Casanova). “You better get to gettin’ on your goodbye shoes” should likely become a country catchphrase for Underwood.
3. One Way Ticket
I’m not a fan of the whistling, but thankfully it goes away quickly. That said, this is one of the most fun and relaxed songs Carrie has ever recorded. I absolutely adore this track and Carrie uses her voice in a way we’ve never heard before. I seriously hope this is a single.
2. Cupid’s Got A Shotgun
Just when the album feels a little heavy handed and dreary, Carrie gives us a Miranda Lambert sounding genuinely comical track that’s practically begging to open her next tour. “Cupid’s got a shotgun and he’s pointing it at me.” This is classic country at its best.
1. Do You Think About Me
You can just picture Carrie sitting on a porch with a couple guitars singing this gorgeous track. This song is the very reason I love Carrie and it’s the direction she really needs to be taking. No frills, no soaring chorus nonsense, no melodramatics. Just Carrie, a banjo, and a great song about first love. This song is beautiful.
Bottom Line:
Carrie seems a little stuck between two avenues in her career at the moment. Blown Away signifies a woman who has one foot in and one foot out. There’s a reason Carnival Ride is widely considered Carrie’s best effort to date. It was consistent with who she was as an artist at the time. Plus it’s the most overall mature record she’s released.
Blown Away, while giving us some of the best of Carrie’s career (Do You Think About Me, One Way Ticket) also gives us some of her worst (See You Again, Two Black Cadillacs). The phrase “wildly uneven” has never rang truer. There are moments of greatness here. I only wish she would have cut the cheeseball story tracks that will ultimately become forgettable and alienate fans.
Here’s hoping she can hone in that acoustic sound mixed with the Carrie we’ve all loved since Some Hearts by the time her next effort rolls around.
B-
Worst review I ever seen ! Blown Away , Two black cadillacs and see you again are the best on the album !
Definitely NOT the worst review I’ve ever seen. I don’t necessarily agree with your rankings, but your Bottom Line is spot on. The album IS wildly uneven. Well said. I agree with the grade given. The album is a bit all over the place and really has a few great tracks with a few horrible ones with the rest sort of staggering in the middle toward irrelevance.
My GOD! Worst review ever :/
Blown Away = epic perfect!
Honestly I can’t even take this review seriously. You are clearly lost when it comes to great songwriting and production. Music is meant to be creative and elvoling and not stuck in the Mud. Open your Mind and accept Greatness
You people are acting like the reviewer gave the CD an F. It’s a B- for Christ’s sake. Clearly they like it, they just don’t love it. I don’t love it either and I’m sure you’ll be reading far worse reviews than this in the coming days.
I agree with this review completely.
@John, it’s just one person’s opinion. The reviewer doesn’t even mention production so wtf are you talking about? They’re saying this album is stuck in the mud and doesn’t have enough evolution. So your comment makes absolutely no sense.
@Michael the Album has a wide variety of styles which doesn’t put Carrie Underwood in a square box musically. There is probably at least one song for everyone’s tastes. The story songs he ranked at the end are clearly the best written songs and the most innovative. His ranking of the fun upbeat goofy songs 1-3 tell me it’s just his taste and he has no appreciation for excellent songwriting. Not saying the top 3 aren’t great, but Blown Away, Two Black Cadillacs and Forever Changed are 3 of the best written songs I’ve seen on any of her Albums.
John, disliking the Blown Away, Two Black Cadillacs and Forever Changed doesn’t mean the writer has no appreciation for excellent song writing. It’s just one person’s opinion against your own which is obviously why you have resorted to claiming your taste is better than someone else’s with no backup. I personally agree with the writer, I don’t love those songs either because they are gimmicky. If you want really great slowed down Carrie songs, check out Someday When I Stop Loving You or I Know You Won’t. Those are far superior, and they’re brilliantly written and slow.
Michael you are correct it’s my opinion just like it’s his. He has no backup or basis for his opinion either. For the record, I agree with you on the songs you mention as being well written but I don’t agree they are far superior. I think the first 4 songs he has rated the highest are clearly the radio ready tracks and when anyone tries to rank such tracks as the best on a CD, I am skeptical. I love One Way Ticket and Cupid but they are not the best songs on this CD. They may be the best for Radio. IMO There is nothing Gimmicky about BA, TBC or FC, they all address real life issues that people can connect with.
The Reviewer also loses credibility when stating “These Dumb Story songs are a dime a dozen in Country Music” Country Music is and has always been lyrically about stories. If you feel that way, then it’s no wonder the ranking of songs are as they are on this review.
The first four tracks (other than Good Girl) are definitely not the most radio friendly. Do You Think About Me has a slim to zero chance of ever being a single. It’s just not the type of song that country radio ever plays. Cupid and One Way Ticket maybe, but my bet is they’ll release Blown Away, followed by Two Black Cadillacs and Forever Changed. I get the whole story thing, but some are good and some are redundant. Many of the story tracks the writer doesn’t like are just lesser versions of other songs with the same story.
I’m going to end this otherwise we’ll just keep going back and forth. Let’s not forget we’re arguing about a record that received a B-. The writer obviously doesn’t hate it as much as you’re claiming, or it would have received a lower grade.
First off, I just want to say that this review does not seem to have much basis for its arguments. Personally, I think that Carrie’s delivery on each song was unique in its own right. I would actually flop the order of the rankings, as “See You Again” is one of my favorites on the album. This could just be a difference in personal preferences, but I honestly don’t think I can take this review seriously.
Bob, the writer never even argues Carrie’s delivery, so your comment makes no sense at all. There’s no reason to take or not take this review seriously. If you like reading reviews than you take it seriously, if you don’t like reading reviews than you don’t. It’s one person’s opinion. To say you don’t take it seriously doesn’t make any sense. Than why are you even here reading it?
Michael, Do You Think About Me isn’t the type of song radio plays? Hmm…Do you listen to any Taylor Swift songs or Lady Antebellum? OWT is just like every Kenny Chesney/and Zach Brown song and Cupid is just like Brad Paisley songs. They are all commercially ready for radio. I like them, just not as much as some of the more meaningful tracts. Forever Changed will not be a release because Carrie already said so herself. I can’t remember a song since Martina’s Independance day that even comes close to the same story line as Blown Away and TBC while about a cheater, is nothing like anything I’ve heard on radio. I don’t mind saying, I hope BA and TBC both get released to radio. They are two of the best on the CD IMO
I’m wondering how you make some of these comments about these songs and give the Album a B-. Also your comment “There are moments of greatness here. I only wish she would have cut the cheeseball story tracks that will ultimately become forgettable and alienate fans” just floors me. You do realize two of her biggest hits ever are Story tracks and I’m pretty sure Before He Cheats and Jesus take the Wheel are not going to be forgotten and didn’t alienate fans. The story lines in the songs on this Album are incredible. This is by far the best collection of songs she has had on an Album. Nothing in her discography compares to the song “Blown Away”
Some of these comments are just ridiculous and make absolutely no sense. Everyone’s mad at the review for a friggin B-. Come on people, pick your battles.
@Steve. I totally see what the writer is saying with the story tracks alienating people and ultimately being forgettable. I wouldn’t really consider Before He Cheats a story track though. And Jesus Take The Wheel is just an awful song in my opinion. I love Carrie and most of her other songs are great but I never liked that one. Probably because I’m not religious, and like the writer says, it’s gimmicky. I disagree, I don’t think this is her best collection of songs, that would go to Carnival Ride. There’s a clear difference with the slow songs here and the slow tracks on the last two CD’s, and in my opinion, they are worse.
@ John, I don’t see Cupid’s Got A Shotgun sounding anything like Brad Paisley. Brad Paisley is an awful singer songwriter, one of the most over rated in the business, and I just don’t think Cupid sounds anything like something he would sing. One Way Ticket definitely sounds like a Zach Brown /Kenny Chesney track, however, you’re missing the point, it’s the way Carrie sings it that makes it so exceptional, which is made pretty clear in the review.
All in all, a decent CD and I pretty much agree with the writer, with the exception of a few rankings.
The moment you ranked “Two Black Cadillacs” and “See You Soon” so low is the moment I stopped reading. Clearly the reviewer has zero credibility and fucking horrible taste in music. Probably a Taylor Swift fan.
It doesn’t seem like the author of this review is a very big country music fan. Like previous posts said, country music is made up of a lot of “story songs”. So saying that she should have cut them would have made the album more “pop”. And this review loses credibility when you say that “Who Are You” is a love song. Well it is a love song that she is seeing about God. Clearly you have heard the album but you didn’t really listen to it! I would advise listening to it a few times before making a review!
Alex, Cupid sounds just like Brad’s Camouflage. Not the lyrics but the music and afterall he’s playing the guitar on the song. Before He Cheats definitely tells a story. So far it’s the biggest song of her career in terms of Awards, Sales etc and it’s the very reason Some Hearts is 7x Platinum. Also she doesn’t have another song that comes close to being 4x Platinium and BHC is about to be 4x Platinum.
It’s always the same argument with you people. As soon as someone doesn’t like the exact same thing you like, you throw out comments like “They must not be a fan of country music.” Obviously the writer is a fan of country music. One doesn’t review a country record with hopes of hating it.
@Bob, Taylor Swift is amazing. She’s the best singer/songwriter of my generation. The only reason some people don’t like her is because she’s young. When she grows up people will see what a sensational talent she really is. And Who Are You could be about whatever you want it to be. If it’s a bout God, frankly, that’s really boring to me. A love song to another person works much better.
Its blatantly obvious that Who Are You is about God. In my opinion another love song is a lot more boring then one about God. How many love songs are out there? Those are the ones that are a dime-a-dozen, but its not too often that you find an artist that isn’t afraid to stand up for their religion. Carrie Underwood is country-pop and is very mainstream so it is highly likely that someone could review this album ad not be a fan of country music.
Or maybe the person who wrote this only reviewed it because she was on American Idol seeing as how most of their posts are about American Idol.
Alex: You think Taylor Swift is the best Singer/Songwriter which I agree she is great but she also sings story songs. Those same type story songs that you say you agree with the reviewer that Carrie should stop singing because they are forgettable and will alienate. Isn’t that a contradiction?
Music is subjective, however, I’ll give my 2cents: I think this is the best Album I’ve heard from Carrie and from any female in the Country Music Industry in many years. It has so much diversity and for me the song Blown Away was absolutely amazing. It had me on the edge of my seat while listening. It and Two Black Cadillacs took me back to a time when Reba had those great story tracks “Fancy” and “The Night the Lights Went out In Georgia” I also got a Bobbie Gentry “Ode To Billy Joe” feel from those two tracks. I personally think neither of those songs will be forgettable and if released to radio, they could be the biggest hits of her career.
I have to say, this is a really bad review. You completely missed the concept on so many of the songs (Who You Are, Forever Changed, Two Black Cadillacs…) As well, many of my favorite songs were ranked lowest, and it seems many other fans and critics agree with me. Weird…
worst review EVER. and who are who say it isn’t, please go look at any other review. this album is AMAZING and will deff get many grammy nods and WINS
I didnt even bother reading the review I just merely scrolled down and looked at the order you ranked the songs, and from that alone I determined your the biggest idiot on the planet..
It almost feels like blatant trolling.. lol
Forever change remind me of Alison Krauss blown away with her bluegrass song. And no, you can’t give Alison Krauss #11 for god sake.
This must be a Taylor & Miranda fan. One person will say this album sucks, while 99 will say this album is awesome.
I guess the reviewer and myself are in the minority. I disagree with many of the rankings but I completely agree with the Bottom Line area. I’ve never been to this website, but all of these negative comments are so absurd and make absolutely no sense. I understand the passion you all feel for Carrie, but you have to remember to stop being so nasty about the review and the person writing it. After all, as someone mentioned earlier, it’s not like they gave it an F. A B- is pretty good in my opinion.
I”ve been a fan of this website and these reviews for months now and I very much appreciate the honesty the writer places into the reviews. It may not always be the most popular opinion, but seriously, nobody else says this stuff.
I love Carrie Underwood and for me this CD is just decent. I very much agree with the review and really think all you haters need to relax and acknowledge that music is totally subjective and just because you disagree doesn’t mean you go around claiming it’s “blatant trolling.”
I found Carrie’s latest album to be quite dull and uninspired and I didn’t like any track on it except “See You Again”, so I totally disagree with you on your take on that particular song, but the rest of the tracks I really don’t want to hear ever again.
I think this is a very good review with spot-on points that are based on a the writer’s point of view. With some of them I totally agree, with some of them I don’t. But it’s a good and well backed up review.
Of course, since the review is neither eulogistic nor is it panegyrical, the person behind it is being lambasted by some people who just cannot accept that there are people on this Earth that don’t think everything Carrie Underwood does is pure perfection.
That being said: being a Carrie Underwood admirer myself I must say that I have mixed feelings about this album. Maybe it will grow on me –I don’t know– but so far there are only some songs that I like.
My definite favorites on the album are ‘Thank God for hometowns’ (AMAZING song)and ‘Good in goodbye’ (BRILLIANT). As for the rest of it, I’ll have to wait and see. Maybe it will grow on me, maybe it won’t. So far, my favorite country releases of the last months are Paisley’s ‘This is contry music’ and Pickler’s ‘100 proof’.