Cry Pretty Album Reviews

[playoncountrymusic]

A few thing I think we should all keep in mind when reading these reviews....

Predictably (and dissapointingly) a lot of reviews will zero in on “The Bullet” because gun violence is a hot button issue. Any review that discredits the song (and the album by extension) for not taking a hard stance on guns immediately loses credibility in my book. If politicians and policy makers are struggling to figure out how to “solve” the issue of gun violence, why on earth would a song, in roughly 4 minutes, be able to say “this is the problem and this is exactly how to fix it.” Short answer: it can’t. That would be absurd, and Carrie would never see herself as having that role. The point of “The Bullet” is EMPATHY, which so often gets lots in the shuffle “as the camera lights fade” and people move on to the next issue. I think a lot of these reviews would be changing their tune if the song was “BAN ALL GUNS,” whether it was musically strong or not.

 

[playoncountrymusic]

I don't understand. I'm not a moderator but I can see your post

I figured it out...I think it was too long that’s why it wouldn’t work lol thanks!

 

[playoncountrymusic]

On this same idea..I think some of the negative reviews are losing the plot on what makes this album so special (the production choices, experimental sounds, vocal finesse, strong lyrics) because again they want “personal” to mean “political” and as soon as they realized it wasn’t...nothing else matters. Again it’s sad, but don’t let it diminish how awesome we know this collection of work is. I think we will see a much different response from the country reviewing community, who know Carrie better as an artist and will see how much she had progressed and challenged herself on this album.

 

[Claus N]

https://www.allmusic.com/album/cry-pretty-mw0003177227

AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Ever since she walked away with the fourth season of American Idol in 2005, Carrie Underwood's strength has been her steeliness. Even at her tenderest moments, there was a sense of remove, as if Underwood was reluctant to let her guard slip, which is what makes the emotional frankness of 2018's Cry Pretty startling. Underwood is self-aware enough to address this shift at the very beginning of the record, which opens with a title track containing the confession that "not usually the kind to show my heart to the world" and then she proceeds to spend the next fifty minutes allowing herself to open up to emotions she usually has kept in reserve. "Cry Pretty" is the rallying call for the album, a cry of confidence that can be heard not just in the lyrics but also within the album's musical ambition. Without abandoning the sweeping, cinematic diva-pop that's her signature, Carrie Underwood buttresses her country roots while fearlessly threading hip-hop and R&B within her music, going as far to invite Ludacris in for a verse on the triumphant closer "The Champion." Perhaps this fist-pumping affirmation isn't as successful as the smooth R&B rhythms holding "Backsliding" together or the rapid rhyming on "The Song That We Used To Make Love To," but the audacity of the Ludacris guest spot underscores how Underwood is taking risks for the first time. Nearly all of them pay off. "The Bullet," an anti-gun violence ballad that feels especially potent and poignant in the wake of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest shooting, is nervy and affecting in a way Underwood never has been, and it finds a counterpart in "Southbound," a party tune that's as effervescent as anything she's ever cut. These two songs show how Underwood's deliberate maturation doesn't come at the expense of what she's done before. Instead, it deepens and enrichens what was already there-as any good maturation would-and the result is an album as satisfying as it is surprising.
4.5/5

Standout tracks: Cry Pretty, Ghosts on the Stereo, Southbound, The Bullet.

 

[lilangel]

Another negative review.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...recision-tooled-country-with-a-soupcon-of-sad

Six albums into her career, Carrie Underwood sometimes seems more like a weaponised expression of modern country’s commercial power than a singer. Even the promotional bumf from her label spends more time dwelling on statistics – albums sold, awards won, streams amassed – than on her music. Mind you, that’s probably wise: Cry Pretty is precisely as interesting as the malls and insanely programmed radio stations where it will be played to death. Cry Pretty’s big “statement” is The Bullet, a song Underwood has apparently been considering for inclusion on several albums, using it this time in response to the Las Vegas mass shooting of last year.

The build-up leads you to expect a lacerating critique of US gun culture; what you get is a lachrymose exposition of the misery of families who lose a loved one to shooting. “You can blame it on hate or blame it on guns,” Underwood sings, in a “who really knows how people end up dead with bullets in them?” sort of way. Ghosts on the Stereo – with namechecks for “Hank, Haggard and Jones” – is the obligatory nod to forebears whose family connection is now very remote indeed. Cry Pretty is an album of power ballads and – on Drinking Alone and End Up With You – nods to pop R&B. It’s not horrible, but it feels very much like something that could have been produced without any human involvement; it is all gloss and shine, with sadness at industry-approved levels of maximum efficacy. Take 75% uplift, add 20% melancholy, top up with 5% not actually contentious controversy, and voilà: Cry Pretty. 2/5

*score counts in metacritic

Have they listened to Low.. Human and raw as it gets.... I mean come on.. sometimes I don't get the negative..

 

[twaintrain]

So glad All Music gave it a good review! I was waiting for theirs. 4.5 stars is the highest score she’s ever received on a studio album!

 

[Smokyiiis]

"Underwood's deliberate maturation doesn't come at the expense of what she's done before. Instead, it deepens and enrichens what was already there-as any good maturation would-and the result is an album as satisfying as it is surprising."

Love that because it's so very true. She definitely shows a load of maturity in this album.

 

[HuiZ]

https://www.allmusic.com/album/cry-pretty-mw0003177227

AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Ever since she walked away with the fourth season of American Idol in 2005, Carrie Underwood's strength has been her steeliness. Even at her tenderest moments, there was a sense of remove, as if Underwood was reluctant to let her guard slip, which is what makes the emotional frankness of 2018's Cry Pretty startling. Underwood is self-aware enough to address this shift at the very beginning of the record, which opens with a title track containing the confession that "not usually the kind to show my heart to the world" and then she proceeds to spend the next fifty minutes allowing herself to open up to emotions she usually has kept in reserve. "Cry Pretty" is the rallying call for the album, a cry of confidence that can be heard not just in the lyrics but also within the album's musical ambition. Without abandoning the sweeping, cinematic diva-pop that's her signature, Carrie Underwood buttresses her country roots while fearlessly threading hip-hop and R&B within her music, going as far to invite Ludacris in for a verse on the triumphant closer "The Champion." Perhaps this fist-pumping affirmation isn't as successful as the smooth R&B rhythms holding "Backsliding" together or the rapid rhyming on "The Song That We Used To Make Love To," but the audacity of the Ludacris guest spot underscores how Underwood is taking risks for the first time. Nearly all of them pay off. "The Bullet," an anti-gun violence ballad that feels especially potent and poignant in the wake of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest shooting, is nervy and affecting in a way Underwood never has been, and it finds a counterpart in "Southbound," a party tune that's as effervescent as anything she's ever cut. These two songs show how Underwood's deliberate maturation doesn't come at the expense of what she's done before. Instead, it deepens and enrichens what was already there-as any good maturation would-and the result is an album as satisfying as it is surprising.
4.5/5

Standout tracks: Cry Pretty, Ghosts on the Stereo, Southbound, The Bullet.

He gets it!

Most of the reviews so far seem to list Cry Pretty and The Bullet as standouts, if I remember correctly.

 

[Claire2004]

""Cry Pretty" is the rallying call for the album, a cry of confidence that can be heard not just in the lyrics but also within the album's musical ambition."


The perfect summation of why Cry Pretty was the lead single, and the title track, of this album.

 

[simonplay]

Rolling Stone review

Review: Carrie Underwood’s Populist Pop Pivot ‘Cry Pretty’
The singer’s big-box country tackles gun violence and addiction alongside heartbreak and early-AM booty calls.
If Carrie Underwood is a “tomato” in mainstream country’s salad, as one sorry-ass industry wag infamously suggested, she’s a ribboned County Fair beefsteak – the singer has over 16 million albums sold with over a dozen country #1s, including her 2006 quintuple-platinum “Before He Cheats,” a song about taking a baseball bat to your cheating dude’s four-wheel-drive, a mega-hit that laid symbolic-vandalism groundwork for Beyonce’s Lemonade years later. And there was quite a bit of Bey in “The Champion,” Underwood’s single collaboration with Ludicris earlier this year. It was the sound of an artist ready to broaden her already-huge fame. Cry Pretty is the next step, a modern country album pivoting into pop and r&b without going full Taylor, while also showing the kind of character more mega-stars should aspire to.
The songcraft is grade-A mall soundtracking, and credit Underwood’s mighty mezzo-ish soprano with selling even the lesser ones. Like Sam Hunt, the architecture is often r&b at core. See “That Song We Used To Make Love To,” co-written (like many songs here) by A-lister Hillary Lindsey, who’s been Underwood’s pointwoman since “Jesus Take The Wheel.” See also “Drinking Alone,” an aching, acrobatic, Adele-worthy slow jam with hard-rock guitar, churchy organ stabs and dobro flashes. “Backsliding” is a startlingly steamy unpacking of booty-call sex with an ex- that somehow doesn’t seem to mess up her hair.
The album turns dark at the back end. “Spinning Bottles” unfurls against stark piano chords that echoes Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” It’s a tearjerker involving chronic alcoholism running counter to country’s default love affair with booze; file alongside Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss’s “Whiskey Lullaby.” Most striking are two songs involving the all-American tradition of gun violence, conjuring both the mass murders of the Route 91 Harvest country music festival and the epidemic of fatal police shootings (703 this year, at last check). “The Bullet” opens on a funeral, with Underwood sketching the aftermath for the victim’s mother, son, and daughter. “Love Wins” doubles down, opening on a similar image of a mom weeping for her son, evidently killed by a “stray bullet,” with Underwood almost snarling the couplet “Politics and prejudice/ How the hell’d it ever come to this?” It’s a good question, though she doesn’t answer it. Instead, the song marshalls its anthemic resources towards the anodyne declaration “Love is the only thing worth fighting for.” Sensible gun laws, in fact, are also worth fighting for. But if Underwood isn’t going there, she’s at least got the balls to engage the subject in the mainstream, where the conversation needs to happen — while her male peers, no doubt worried about their market share, seem scared to make a peep.

3.5/5

https://www.google.com.uy/amp/s/www...ods-populist-pop-pivot-cry-pretty-724192/amp/

 

[Claire2004]

^^^ I particularly like this part: "But if Underwood isn’t going there, she’s at least got the balls to engage the subject in the mainstream, where the conversation needs to happen — while her male peers, no doubt worried about their market share, seem scared to make a peep."

 

[teesharky]

Omg All Music Guide and Rolling Stone gave Carrie the best review of her career!!! Holy crap !Finally!

Suck it LA Times and Guardian! Everyone else loves it!!

 

[teesharky]

The rare Rolling Stone love makes me happy!

 

[simonplay]

Album Review: Carrie Underwood's Cry Pretty | Sounds Like Nashville

 

[Claire2004]

Taste of Country review:

Sonically, Carrie Underwood's new Cry Pretty album isn't as bold as her nuanced themes. The 35-year-old's sixth studio album is — as promised — a more mature album that at its best works between the crevices of emotions.


Songs like "Backsliding," "That Song That We Used to Make Love To" and "Drinking Alone" are complicated concepts presented effortlessly. Where before Underwood has worked in broad strokes, she now paints with a finer brush, showing an ability to relay more complex ideas that might frighten another woman in her situation. To embrace "That Song That We Used to Make Love To" is to admit there's someone in your past you think about during intimate moments. That's nearly universal, but many are afraid to bring such vulnerability to the surface like the singer does during this soulful, pop-country arrangement.

It just takes me to the place when you were mine / When you laid my body down and got drunk on me like wine,"Underwood sings during the first verse of a signature song on Cry Pretty. The personal intimacy of that lyric is something she'd have shied away from on previous albums. It's raw and sexual and a marriage of remorse to desire. It's also part of a group of four straight songs that smile at bad decision making.


Not every song is so emotionally complex. In fact, four of the final five songs on Cry Pretty are blunt emotional hemorrhages that take on easier-to-talk-about ideas like gun control, alcoholism and social acceptance. Underwood is doing her best to keep "The Bullet" out of political conversations, but it's hardly going to become the NRA theme song. "Kingdom" closes the album with a peek inside her household. Much like "What I Never Knew I Always Wanted" on Storyteller, Underwood reflects on the surprising joys of motherhood.


Some of the most interesting lyrics come early on songs like "Ghosts On the Stereo" and "Low," a swelling heartbreaker that's as poetic as any she's released to date.


"Like a cigarette without a light / Like a whippoorwill without the night / A broken buzz that's lost it's high / Baby that's what I feel like," Underwood sings over an acoustic guitar. The ballad is also a microcosm of what she and David Garcia do sonically on Cry Pretty. Several tracks begin to clear new space before coming back to what she does best. Most, if not all, reach that cathartic vocal climax her fans admire and detractors are weary of. This may be her finest album to date, but she still has room to learn the art of subtlety.

Carrie Underwood's 'Cry Pretty' Filled With Regret, Bad Decisions

 

[Smokyiiis]

Cry Pretty is Underwood’s most stirring album in years. Her voice alone will always move units, but it’s her heart that will keep things interesting.

LOVE LOVE LOVE that.....

 

[Smokyiiis]

Taste of Country review:

Sonically, Carrie Underwood's new Cry Pretty album isn't as bold as her nuanced themes. The 35-year-old's sixth studio album is — as promised — a more mature album that at its best works between the crevices of emotions.


Songs like "Backsliding," "That Song That We Used to Make Love To" and "Drinking Alone" are complicated concepts presented effortlessly. Where before Underwood has worked in broad strokes, she now paints with a finer brush, showing an ability to relay more complex ideas that might frighten another woman in her situation. To embrace "That Song That We Used to Make Love To" is to admit there's someone in your past you think about during intimate moments. That's nearly universal, but many are afraid to bring such vulnerability to the surface like the singer does during this soulful, pop-country arrangement.

It just takes me to the place when you were mine / When you laid my body down and got drunk on me like wine,"Underwood sings during the first verse of a signature song on Cry Pretty. The personal intimacy of that lyric is something she'd have shied away from on previous albums. It's raw and sexual and a marriage of remorse to desire. It's also part of a group of four straight songs that smile at bad decision making.


Not every song is so emotionally complex. In fact, four of the final five songs on Cry Pretty are blunt emotional hemorrhages that take on easier-to-talk-about ideas like gun control, alcoholism and social acceptance. Underwood is doing her best to keep "The Bullet" out of political conversations, but it's hardly going to become the NRA theme song. "Kingdom" closes the album with a peek inside her household. Much like "What I Never Knew I Always Wanted" on Storyteller, Underwood reflects on the surprising joys of motherhood.


Some of the most interesting lyrics come early on songs like "Ghosts On the Stereo" and "Low," a swelling heartbreaker that's as poetic as any she's released to date.


"Like a cigarette without a light / Like a whippoorwill without the night / A broken buzz that's lost it's high / Baby that's what I feel like," Underwood sings over an acoustic guitar. The ballad is also a microcosm of what she and David Garcia do sonically on Cry Pretty. Several tracks begin to clear new space before coming back to what she does best. Most, if not all, reach that cathartic vocal climax her fans admire and detractors are weary of. This may be her finest album to date, but she still has room to learn the art of subtlety.

Carrie Underwood's 'Cry Pretty' Filled With Regret, Bad Decisions

Pretty good review coming from Duke.....

 

[Smokyiiis]

https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/77927/Carrie-Underwood-Cry-Pretty/

4.5 and brilliant breakdown.....

Review Summary: More involved than ever, Carrie Underwood continues to top herself with her best work to date.

I think we saw the writing on the wall when Carrie Underwood won American Idol; this talented young lady was about to take country music and the industry at large by storm. With a voice unlike any in recorded history and tons of charm and quirk to wrap up the perfect complete package, she can make any song a hit. As her career progressed, so did her music. Girl power anthems a la "Before He Cheats" and the insufferable "Undo It" started to take a backseat to more concrete material with a strong emotional through-line. It's been a few years since Underwood sent a handful of chart toppers through the airwaves, but she's back and I am happy to report she hasn't missed a beat. Cry Pretty might be the country superstar's best project yet.

Country and pop once seemed like an impossible pair to marry, but as the genre has changed, it's being done more often and being done right more often. Recent years have yielded excellent results in this regard with Maren Morris' Hero and Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour as prime examples. Thankfully, Carrie Underwood doesn't let herself become a relic of the past with this record. Her music ages like the finest wine and it's evidenced on the album's opening title cut. "Cry Pretty" was Underwood's worst performing single to date, but it's still one of her most important works in a while. Underwood sings of us masking our true emotions and putting our best face on for the world, each note more emotional than the last. It's a real, authentic tune that will have any listener say, "I've been there."

"Ghosts on the Stereo" is an untempo nod and a wink to some of country music's architects while "Backsliding" is a well performed country pop slow burn that sees Underwood milk every second to strongly sing about two ex-lovers who can't walk away. The poppier basslines compliment her quite well and it fits the composition. "Southbound" is shaping up to be a spring break favorite next March; the poignant synth washes will have you yearning for warmer weather immediately. "The Song We Used To Make Love To" is an explorative cut, taking Underwood's music places it's never gone before, but it works due to the strong production, which is another thing Underwood can put next to her name on this record.

Of course, Carrie sings her little heart out on Cry Pretty, all fifty minutes and twenty six seconds of it. But she's never been as involved in the musical process as she is here. Almost every cut on here was co-written by Underwood, and she cuts her teeth as a producer for the first time ever. For a first timer, she's not bad. Her steady creative hand enhances several tracks on here, including the eerie sleeper "Drinking Alone." This track could have easily been a stale re-hash of previous hit "Cowboy Casanova", but thankfully Carrie doesn't take the bait. "We should be drinking alone together," Underwood taunts the nameless suitor who has entered the bar to accomplish likeminded ends.

"Spinning Bottles" is a key-driven ballad with some of Underwood's most cohesive vocal work ever. Rather than give us a showcase of her prowress, she uses the track as a nice test for her various abilities. Her range, her gentle crescendos, her ability to vocalize, it all can't be overstated and serves as a good reminder of just how talented Underwood is vocally. "Love Wins" is a well produced mid-tempo anthem that will lift up any listener as Underwood challenges the audience to come together in a particularly contentious political climate at this point in time. This could have flopped badly, but Underwood again sells it with her strong, impeccable singing abilities in a way few, if any, singers across all genres are even remotely capable of doing.

"End Up With You" features some eerie guitar slicks that perfectly suit Underwood's voice. This mid tempo jam doesn't explode with much pop or spank to it but it doesn't have to. It succeeds by just staying grounded and working within the composition. "Kingdom" officially closes out the album with a similar sentiment some of its predecessors took. Painting a picture of a quaint, perfect family, you get a glimpse into who Underwood is as a person and the kind of life she wants, white picket fences and all. The strictly pop song "The Champion" Carrie cut with Ludacris is included as a bonus track, but let's pretend that's not a stain on an otherwise spotless album.

Cry Pretty is Carrie Underwood's best album yet. At every turn, she stuns the listener with her vocal talents, but her work behind the scenes can't go unnoticed, because it's arguably just as important. She gets to take the producer's chair for the first time on this record and she does a terrific job applying the perfect touches to ensure this album runs like a well oiled machine. She also serves as a prominent songwriter and anyone burned out by the "Before He Cheats" copycats she's previously recorded can no longer deny she's also one of the best playwrights in Nashville. Underwood brings the red meat as usual, but she also expands her horizons and finds herself very involved musically on this record. Cry Pretty is for sure one of 2018's best albums.



Absolutely INSANELY RIGHT ON!

 

[twaintrain]

“A spotless album” - I like that.

 

[Callie]

I am a country truest, if you will. I'm from the school of JC, LL, MT, GJ, TW and so on. I thought for 13 years I wanted Carrie to sing a straight up & down COUNTRY album to shut down the critics, embarrass the CMA's when they threw away their votes & bring aboard some die hard truest. That said, I had this album on repeat last night & found myself to be a quasi twitter stalker (on my own timeline of course but @carrieunderwood with every tweet) with my over the edge admiration of this album. This is not COUNTRY of my time nor is it saying, I'm country. This is, IMHO, a way for Carrie to show us what she likes, what she is capable of what she might be surprised could happen which is further universal appeal. We all seem to like the standard 4 on the album plus LUDA! I mean who doesn't love Luda?

What does that say about the rest of the album?

I was on twitter and boards last night trying to see if people were leaning into the other songs. THEY WERE (in my best Marisa Tomei-my cousin Vinny). People, NOT CRITICS, seem to love this album. I found, as I tweeted, it crossed several genre's: Country, Pop, Jazz/Blues, Light Gospel/Pop & I'm sure more if you listen intently. The people, fans & musical wanderers like this album or love it. I've not heard bad reviews from the general population. I was one thinking "oh goodness, what if it's not country again?".


I'm happy it is NOT!!! This album is more than country can handle IMHO, truly. I have never ever taken into account what critics think. If I had I would of missed out on the Stones, CCR, Journey, Boston, Aerosmith, GnR, Moody Blues and so on. They ALL were bombasted by critics in their careers at some point. I still spin them today and more. I may not spin Some hearts (with exception to a couple songs) or Play On (same) but this album will be in my high rotation. I'm so proud she took ME to task & didn't do a straight up country album. This is far better.


I'm not a critic, just a loyal Carrie fan who was waiting on something I didn't even know I wanted!!!