Carrie Underwood - Blown Away

Carrie (Bl)Underwood arrives with album number four and for me it was met with meh who cares. This girls got a good voice but just like the early career of Faith Hill she picks poor material to sing and release. She's been lucky that the Idol machine and her label staff has been able to convince country radio and fans that she's the real deal when she's proved she can achieve one decent song per album and somehow the other crap seems to stick to the walls.

Well this is the first time I can honestly say I like the majority of her 2012 release Blown Away. I actually enjoy nearly all the tracks with the obvious torch song poppycock aside Carrie has finally realized her potential and given her voice some exemplary material as a vehicle to showcase that voice. One thing that I like about the album is that she just sings most of the time with less vocal gymnastics and that is what I liked about her on American Idol. She just sang even though she could out sing Mariah or Whitney and even step into Reba's league without breaking a sweat.

This time around the best songs are so good that I believe this is going to be a massive seller out pacing everything she's released previously. One listen to the awesome "Nobody Ever Told You" and how can you not agree that it has number one hit written all over it. Then you hear another stunning song like "Leave Love Alone" and the good songs don't end there she has even more top flight songs like "One Way Ticket" which is not a cover of the LeAnn Rimes track by the way. "One Way Ticket" has a lot in common with Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffet and is undeniably charming. She strikes gold many times with Blown Away and I can only hope that this is the beginning of a magnificent turn in her career.

There are a couple of country pop tunes on the album one being the first single "Good Girl" and even it is a powerful pop number that shines brightly on this dominant record. The ladies of country music are going to have a very hard time competing with Carrie this time around. Now remember all this praise is coming from someone who is not a big fan of Underwood. I'm pretty anit-Underwood but I can give positive credit out when an artist pulls their head from their nether region and releases an album that is this good.

One of the best ballads on Blown Away is "See You Again" that borders on power ballad territory. Another of the albums formidable compositions "Cupid's Got A Shotgun" is an uptempo two-step that will fill dance floors everywhere. Carrie croons "Wine After Whiskey" and although she doesn't match the epic torture of Lee Ann Womack does with sort of song Underwood emotes very well and could have another hit with this track as it reminds me in spirit of "Fooled Around & Fell In Love" which is one of the greatest love songs of all-time. This song doesn't match it but it has that sort of charm buried inside it.

She does do one of the no no songs "Thank God For Home Towns" the sort of song that has become a genre of its own. The bland ballads about where you come from or long to be or proud to be from ridiculous Americana garbage. I just can't stand these farcical overwrought fake ballads. You have every country singer putting at least one on their records it seems and it sucks. Her torch songs still lacks but 99% of torch songs are awful so she's almost doomed when looking for this sort of goo to sing. The albums title track is also a pretty good tune, the production on her voice is a little different as well as her delivery. This could be another candidate for single to radio as many of the included songs on Blown Away.

Overall this album is about as good as a country pop record can be with the formula that needs to be concocted in this current Cashville era. I recommend this album to any and all fans of country, pop and female vocalist. There is nary a bad track and if you don't believe me please check out the samples or head to I-Tunes and see for yourself. The album art is the most negative thing about the album. It is cheap looking it doesn't really resemble Carrie with the angle and make-up or airbrushing used on the photo. Maybe she's had a lot of plastic surgery or something but I really don't like the artwork and its too bad because the music it houses is so much more deserving of a great packaging to promote interest.