Album review: Blown Away by Carrie Underwood

Well, I’m going to start this off by thanking everyone who has been reading anything I write, but especially those of you who read the last album review I did for Josh Abbott Band’s new CD, Small Town Family Dream. Up until that point, my review of Scotty McCreery’s latest single was my most looked at post, by a lot. The Josh Abbott Band review shot past that one and set a new all-time high for me in terms of hits. Both for an individual post and for the amount of hits I’ve gotten in one day. Right now it sits at 549 page views, which I find kind of amazing. So thank you for that.

As you may have seen me mention in other posts, I’ve started a Facebook page for this blog which can be found here - https://www.facebook.com/CountryMusicAccordingToKim. I’ve been starting to upload some of the pictures I’ve taken over the years and will be adding new ones all the time. As of right now, I have albums for the following artists: Toby Keith, Eric Church, Kix Brooks, country music songwriters, Ronnie Dunn, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Bill Anderson, Sunny Sweeney, Kip Moore, Edens Edge, Jerrod Niemann, Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, JaneDear Girls, Dierks Bentley, Jake Owen, Chris Young and Jason Aldean. Many of those will have more pictures added to them over the next few weeks and then there’ll be new ones made for other artists. So go check it out if you haven’t already and let me know what you think.

Now that that’s all said, let’s talk about Carrie Underwood’s new album, Blown Away. Or rather, I’ll write and you’ll read, if we’re being all technical about it. First I want to say that Carrie is one of those artists where I really only listen to some of their songs. I’m not sure why that is; I would consider myself to be a fan of Carrie’s, but I never seem to listen to any of her albums as a whole. Something that I expect will change with this album. I’ve listened to it quite a few times by now and I really believe that this is, by far, the best album that she’s ever done. This is not to insult any of her other albums, mind, just saying that I feel like she and her team really stepped it up with this one. Production wise, I’d go as far to say that it is pretty close to flawless. There are some cases where things sounds slightly overproduced to me, but that’s really me being nitpicky. I absolutely love all the playing throughout Blown Away. She has quite a group of musicians on this album, I’ll say that.

The first thing that struck me about Blown Away is how big it all is. This is a very big album; big in content, big in sound, big in terms of her vocal delivery and so on. This CD is already doing great things for Carrie and I imagine that it’s just going to keep doing great things for her. I predict that this is going to be her biggest album to date, in terms of success. It’s only beginning.

The other thing I want to comment on for this part of the review is how varied this album is in terms of sound. Some artists are perfectly content to stay in their respective genre, maybe stretching their boundaries a little bit but never straying too far from their genre of choice. Then there are artists who are less concerned with genre and more interested in exploring other musical paths. The latter kind of artist eventually transforms from a country artist, in this case, to simply an artist. These artists tend to be few and far between; this is the kind of thing that either works for a person or doesn’t. It takes a certain kind of artist to be able to pull it off and with this album, I feel like Carrie Underwood has pulled it off. Yes, there are songs on here that I’d classify as country and it is for that reason why I have no issues with her being considered a country artist. There’s always going to be some country in Carrie; I’d be stunned if she ever broke away from it completely. But there’s definitely multiple genres being represented here and somehow it all works. I’d consider this to be a very cohesive collection of songs.

So in summary, it you’re more of a traditionalist when it comes to country and are looking for a straight up country album, this is probably not it. But I would definitely recommend checking it out with an open mind and seeing what you think. I’d venture to say that there’d be at least a couple that you’d like. It’s a very interesting album and for me, it was absolutely worth the money. This is the short version of the review. If you want to know what I thought of each song individually, keep on reading after the cut. 

“Good Girl” I did a review of this song back in April, which can be found right here if you want to read it, http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/04/song-review-carrie-underwoods-good-girl.html. My opinion of it is basically the same, though I will say that it’s grown on me more since then. I do still believe that it’s the weakest single that she’s put out and the weakest song on the album. This is also one of the times where it sounds a bit overproduced to me. But that said, it really has grown on me since I did my review.

                                                                                                                      

“Blown Away” This CD gets off to a bit of a dark and intense start and I have to say that I really like it. The music itself is pretty cool and sets the tone very well; great energy to it to boot. This is one song where you’re really going to have to listen to the lyrics to fully appreciate it. What we have here is a song about a man “was a mean old mister” who from what I can gather is a violent drunk who is more than likely responsible for the death of our narrator’s mother. And the tornado sirens are going off and our narrator has locked herself in the cellar and is praying for the twister to blow the house away. Including her father, who is passed out on the couch. I said it was dark. Some great lines in here too, including, “Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away” and “There’s not enough rain in Oklahoma/ To wash the sins out of that house”. I really like this song; I find it interesting.

“Two Black Cadillacs” This is probably my favorite song on the album, it’s definitely the one I’ve listened to the most since getting the CD. I genuinely love everything about this. The music is perfect for the lyric and I really like her delivery on this. I’m really hoping that this becomes a single, mainly because I really want to see a video for it. I can totally picture how the video could be and it would be fantastic. Some lyrics, “It was the first and the last time they saw each other face to face/ They shared a crimson smile and just walked away/ And left the secret at the grave”. Yeah, I want to see a video for this so badly.

“See You Again” Well, if this one doesn’t sound like it belongs in a movie, I don’t know what does. This song seems to be perfectly crafted for something like that. That’s something I could say for quite a few of the songs on Blown Away actually. This is one of my favorite vocals by Carrie on here. Good song.

“Do You Think About Me” This is a very sweet song and features some very nice, relaxed playing that I enjoy. This is one song that they could play around with if they add it to her live show – it just seems like there’s some different ways to go musically with this one and that’s a good thing for a live show. Solid song.

“Forever Changed” One of the standout tracks for me, starting off with the beautiful piano intro. It wouldn’t be a Carrie Underwood album it didn’t have at least one song that tugged at the heart strings and this fits that bit. The simplicity of the music combined with the strength of the lyrics is enough to make this a standout song, but add in Carrie’s delivery and the result is something that is equally special and heartbreaking. This is quite a song and one that every country fan should listen to. Every time it comes on, I catch myself stopping whatever I’m doing to listen to it. It pulls me in every time. Beautiful piece of music here, well-crafted and perfectly arranged. Wonderful concept as well, albeit a terribly sad one.

“Nobody Ever Told You” This song serves as a nice pick me up after the emotional heaviness of the last one. It’s upbeat, but starts off very gently if that makes sense. So it’s a transition from the last one, but not a jarring one if you know what I mean. What I’m trying to say is that this was a great choice to follow “Forever Changed”.  I have a bit of a soft spot for songs like this because it’s a message that a lot of girls need to hear. And one that will never get old because there will always be someone out there who will benefit from this. This one makes me smile. Great feel to it too.

“One Way Ticket” Okay, this one has a very minor strike against it for me, namely because I really don’t like whistling. In fact, I kind of hate whistling; I don’t know, I just find it grating and that’s under any circumstance. I would have rather they used steel drums instead, but that’s just my personal preference. Whistling aside, I really do like this song. It’s a nice, feel good song that makes me smile, just like the last one did.

“Thank God for Hometowns” A somewhat fresh take on a well-used idea, I like this one. It’s probably one of the better written songs of this type and I like the arrangement on this as well. This one has some lines in it that I really like, such as, “Thank God for the county lines that welcome you back in when you were dying to get out” or “And when you’re lost out in this crazy world, you got somewhere to go and get found/ Thank God for hometowns”.

“Good in Goodbye” This song is about exactly what you’d expect it to be about based on the title – it’s about the good that can come from a goodbye, even a painful one. I feel like I should like this one a little more than I do; that’s not to say that I dislike it, I just don’t like it as much as I want to. It’s a good song for sure. This one may have suffered a bit from album placement. This one is kind of similar to the last one in feel, too much so for my taste. I’m just not really feeling this one, but I will say that it’s a nicely written song. Just not a favorite.

“Leave Love Alone” This is one of my favorite openings on the album and I’m not exactly sure what it is about it. It’s a nice lead in. I listen to the first verse wanting it to pick up some since it feels like it’s dragging just a little bit. The chorus helps with that, but this song never quite gets to where I’d like it too. This is one I’d like to see live because there’s so much opportunity here for the band to pump it up some more. I like the concept and the song, in spite of that though.

“Cupid’s Got a Shotgun” This song wins the award for most intriguing song title of the album. Actually, it might just be one of the most intriguing song titles I’ve ever heard. It’s definitely up there. The energy is this one is great; the band’s kind of smoking in this and I love that. I’ll admit that I have some mixed feelings on the lyrics. The general concept was a great one, but it didn’t quite reach its full potential for me.  On one hand, I really like it and on the other, I feel like there’s too much emphasis on the weaponry. I go back and forth on that point, but I lean more towards really liking it. It’s a fun song.

“Wine after Whiskey” I find the idea for this song very interesting and it’s carried out very well. There are some really nice lines in here. An example for you, “’Cause fire turns to embers, embers to ashes that blow away too soon” and another, “When you’ve tasted a love that strong, you can’t go back/ And you can’t settle for anything less and that’s what gets me/ It’s like having wine after whiskey”. This has become another of my favorites off of this CD. I really like this one.

“Who Are You” In which Carrie sings her tail off. This is her best vocal on the album by far for me and that’s saying something because she does some great singing on here. Of course, this is Carrie Underwood we’re talking about and she is easily one of the best female vocalists in country music currently, if not music in general as far as I’m concerned. Just in case we somehow forgot just how big this album is, this song reminds us. This is another one that sounds like it belongs in a movie. The playing on this is great, but everything else sort of pales in comparison to the vocal for me. Great way to close out the album.