MakePaulaCry wrote:
12200!!!
The new
album's first single, 'Cowboy Casanova,' is rocketing up the charts and proving to be a successful bit of escapist fun. The album also includes
more poignant tunes such as 'Temporary Home,' which Carrie co-wrote. "I would love people to listen to 'Temporary Home' and know that I
believe what I'm singing. I'm a Christian and this earth is just passing through, as life isn't the end," she says. "I would love people
to listen to 'Mama's Song' and say 'OK, she loves her mama and she's in a good place in her life right now.' I think that's what a
lot of it is about. Even things that I picked, songs that I didn't write this time, are happy songs."
Though she enjoyed stretching creatively by working with co-writers from
different genres, Carrie's concerned fans might think she's jumping ship and leaving country music. "My biggest fear [was] that people would see
names like that and think she's going to try to go into a different genre of music," she says, "which I'm promising right now it would never
happen."
Carrie Underwood, "Play On" (19 Recordings/Arista Nashville)
Carrie Underwood opens her third album with an audacious stomper, "Cowboy Casanova," a put-down of a playboy that slyly references a famous quarterback Underwood briefly dated. But everything else about the bold, sassy tune looks forward, a reflection of "Play On," which aims to illustrate Underwood's maturation and growth.
On her first two albums, the "American Idol" winner worked to establish herself as a country music singer. Now that she's the reigningAcademy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year and Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year, Underwood looks to expand her boundaries on "Play On."
Primarily, she brings in several successful pop songwriters, including "Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi, hip-hop specialist Mike Elizondo(Eminem, 50 Cent) and dance-pop producer Max Martin (Pink, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson). At times, the pop collaborators strive to accentuate Underwood's country roots. "Quitter," co-produced and co-written by Martin, grounds its pop melody by playing the main riff on mandolin. DioGuardi's co-writes include a tender family ballad, "Mama's Song," that's as Southern as eggs and grits at sunrise.
So it goes throughout "Play On": Underwood balances fat-chord rockers like "Undo It" with bubbly pop songs like "This Time" and beautiful ballads like "What Can I Say," a duet with the trio Sons of Sylvia. In the end, this tremendously gifted singer proves she can move in several directions while always sounding like she's moving forward.
CHECK THIS OUT: For all the variety of "Play On," and for all the power in Underwood's voice, her most memorable effort comes on "Someday When I Stop Loving You," a timeless heartbreaker that depends on nuance and understatement more than vocal strength.
