Fan Ideas For Album 4: Please Post Here

[teesharky]

Fan Ideas for Album 4: Post Here
Hey guys, I posted this on the FC too, but I thought it would be fun to have a thread of our thoughts and ideas about Album 4 for Carrie and her team to read, so they can get some fan feedback in case they are interested in our ideas.

Since Carrie blogged that she is definitely working very hard right now on Album 4, I thought it would be a good time to post our very "non-professional" ideas and thoughts here.

My Ideas/Thoughts:

1. PLEASE INCLUDE OKLAHOMA WIND: I think it is fair to say that almost every fan that heard the demo of this song is in love with it. I think it may be Carrie's best songwriting effort to date, and it is a nice shout out to Nashville songwriters Bill Anderson, etc., who is very very respected in the industry. I think it would sound amazing if Vince Gill sang it with Carrie.

2. MORE HAPPY UPBEAT LOVE SONGS: I am so in love with Carrie's upbeat happy songs, as you can throw the top down on your car and crank it up in the summer. I am referring to "Wasted", "All American Girl", "Get Out of This Town", "This Time", "Quitter", etc. Those songs are so under-rated, and they are arguably the catchiest, most fun to sing along to. I think there should be more of these amazing songs on the album.

3. A SUMMER SONG? I was thinking the other day that Carrie doesn't have a "summer" themed song yet on her repertoire ala Kenny Chesney or Blake Shelton's Some Beach, etc. It would be amazing if she did something like a blend of country and reggae to make it beachy and breezy, kind of like what Kenny and Blake did. Maybe she could even collaborate with Kenny, the summer king himself.

4. A Duet with Miranda Lambert. I would be thrilled if this ever happened. I love them both and they are great friends, so I think they could kick major bootah with a collaboration.

5. Collab with Other Artists Like Jewel, Leanne Womak, Trisha Yearwood, Adele, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban (since we know a Brad duet is coming-- yay!!!!).

6. Another beautiful piano ballad like she did with Mama's Song, only maybe make this one a love song to Mike directly.

Maybe too mushy though, per Carrie's words. lol

7. Something REALLY COUNTRY: I was thinking how amazing Carrie sounds on Brooks n Dunn's Neon Moon or Loretta's Song, and wouldn't it be nice if Carrie did a song kind of like "Strawberry Wine" or something classic like that. It doesn't have to be too "twangy", but I just LOVE the feel of Strawberry Wine.

8. Cover Song? I would die to hear Carrie sing something like The Eagle's "Tequila Sunrise". That song is one of the most beautiful simple songs ever. Epic.

 

[AnthonyLovesCarrie]

Great ideas, tee. I agree with a lot of what you said, and I have some of my own as well.

1. An uptempo lead single that gets released to country, pop/CHR, AC, and Hot AC. I know this won't happen, but you never know. I'm not saying I want it to be a remix, just a Cowboy Casanova-type song, except this time they should actually promote it to other formats to draw in more fans. Lady A's "Need You Now" got them a ton of more fans, and they brought a slow of new fans to country music. Granted, they did remix, but it wasn't that different from the country version. I would rather Carrie not remix though, but that doesn't mean she can't appeal to other formats.

2. "Oklahoma Wind" needs to make the album and be one of the singles. This will go down as Carrie's best song in her career thus far, in my opinion. They need to make up for not releasing SWISLY and WCIS by putting this on the album and making sure it becomes a single!

3. Don't release all of the iTunes promotional singles as the radio singles. This totally killed the surprise/excitement factor of the Play On Era for me. I know that none of us knew for sure that those songs would be the actual singles, but it still made things less exciting. In fact, I'd rather them not do any iTunes promotional singles at all (aside from the lead single, obviously).

4. Less boy-bashing songs. This is a given. Carrie needs something fun and uptempo that isn't about a guy.

5. Cover a pop or R&B song. I want to see Carrie cover a song that isn't country or rock, but sort of turn it into a country song. For example, Sara Evans covered Rod Stewart's "My Heart Can't Tell You No" on her newest album, and she put her own country twang in it. The song came out amazingly, and is one of my favorites on her album. So I'd love to see Carrie do something similar.

6. More than 5 singles and worldwide tour. I'd love to see this album last a long time. Release a lot of singles and do a worldwide tour.

7. Less "cheesy" songs and just better lyrics. I'm sorry, but I'm not a fan of "Change" or "Play On". They come off as very corny. I do like the songs, but they are really corny, lyrically. Carrie is one of the biggest acts in the music industry, and probably has access to some of the greatest writers out there. She should really utilize that and take advantage of it. She can really do so much better with some of the songs she puts on her albums.

8. Duet with either Shania Twain or Garth Brooks. I don't know what the chances are of this happening, but Shania is my 2nd favorite behind Carrie. I'd love for them to do a duet together. Maybe if Shania makes her comeback to music they can even do a tour together for a few months, like Carrie did with Keith Urban? If Shania isn't possible, I'd like to see her record something with Garth Brooks if that can happen lol.

 

[pklongbeach]

Well, I'm really more interested in Carrie following her heart and having something come out that is unique even to my own thinking.
So the idea of telling her what "I think would be good" sort of goes against that idea for me.
But! I will play along.
My feeling for the best albums is always that one title seems to lead naturally into the next title. As if they were connected somehow. which actually, some producers do connect songs to create a sense of continuety.
But the whole of the album becomes a "body of work". Each song having a connecting thread that moves you through the entire piece.
These are the kinds of albums that continue to gain notoriety.
Revolution has that. ZBB albums have that. Green Day American Idiot. Dark Side of the Moon. Tapestry.
These kinds of albums are hard to imagine with out all the parts in place.
I hope she can dig really deep and come out with something like this.
It may be too soon. But that is what I would wish for.
And I honestly would not care if it was her most popular. I would love it!
(btw, I felt that SH had that in that many of those songs had a similar thread of moving forward from the past in them)

 

[Kizmet311]

I say let Carrie create a work of art that SHE feels reflects who she is. While I would love to see OW released, beyond that, I just want Carrie to do what she wants.

 

[jeff]

my idea is: please Carrie sing with me!

 

[conorlovescarrie:)]

1: Less Angry Boy Songs Don't get me wrong, I love CC and BHC, in my opinion they're 2 of her best songs, but I dont think she needs soooo much. Play on had CC, UI and SLT and 2 out of those were both singles, so in other words half of the singles were boy-bashing songs, and SLT, although its not really a single is on the charts too! I'm afraid people will just think that's all that she writes about
2: Have Oklahoma Wind! It's such a great song, and it needs to be on her album! It would get such great reviews
3: Have Another Strong 1st Single I love the mood CC created, it was a great fun song, and it was totally different and it took us all by surprise, she should do another song like that to get people excited for the record
4: Another Duet WCIS is my favorite Carrie song ever! I'd love to hear another duet by her, but this time with a more "legit" artist, I mean no one really knows about SOS. Maybe someone like Brad or Miranda, or even someone outside of country
5: Belting I feel like PO lacked some of the really big "Belting" songs like JTTW or IKYW or JAD I loved those!
6: Better Single Choices I feel like the single choices for the PO era weren't the best. TH, UI and MS weren't exactly the 3 strongest songs on the album, I wish they would release them even if Carrie didn't write them, and release the best ones from the album, plus don't release all of the Promotional singles as actual singles

 

[AIgrl06]

I love this thread.

2. "Oklahoma Wind" needs to make the album and be one of the singles. This will go down as Carrie's best song in her career thus far, in my opinion. They need to make up for not releasing SWISLY and WCIS by putting this on the album and making sure it becomes a single!

3. Don't release all of the iTunes promotional singles as the radio singles. This totally killed the surprise/excitement factor of the Play On Era for me. I know that none of us knew for sure that those songs would be the actual singles, but it still made things less exciting. In fact, I'd rather them not do any iTunes promotional singles at all (aside from the lead single, obviously).

I so agree with these two. I'm sure I'll have other ideas later, but for now, as long as these two happen for the next album, I'll be ecstatic, lol.

 

[diva101]

1. I think that she kinda needs to experiment on Neo-Trad Country
2. Have tearful Ballads sort of like Just A Dream and You won't find this <--- Love those two songs!
3. More of country rock!
4. Balance out The Ballads And the Rock songs

 

[Kings_Fan]

Oklahoma wind!!!

 

[sam_vzla]

2. MORE HAPPY UPBEAT LOVE SONGS: I am so in love with Carrie's upbeat happy songs, as you can throw the top down on your car and crank it up in the summer. I am referring to "Wasted", "All American Girl", "Get Out of This Town", "This Time", "Quitter", etc. Those songs are so under-rated, and they are arguably the catchiest, most fun to sing along to. I think there should be more of these amazing songs on the album.
.

I agree with this, in fact I think the first single of the next album should be something in that area, it's been a long time since she had something out there like this.

3. Don't release all of the iTunes promotional singles as the radio singles. This totally killed the surprise/excitement factor of the Play On Era for me. I know that none of us knew for sure that those songs would be the actual singles, but it still made things less exciting. In fact, I'd rather them not do any iTunes promotional singles at all (aside from the lead single, obviously).

4. Less boy-bashing songs. This is a given. Carrie needs something fun and uptempo that isn't about a guy.

.

I agree about not having the countdown songs as singles, but I think having the countdown is a good idea. I also agree about the bashing boy songs.

my idea is: please Carrie sing with me!

Sorry Jeff, its just one male fan singing with her per album and she called me earlier today lol I wish.

5: Belting I feel like PO lacked some of the really big "Belting" songs like JTTW or IKYW or JAD I loved those!

See, while I like this songs, I thought one of the greatest things about PO is that she controlled more her voice. The things she does with her voice in TH, WCIS, SWISLY, MS are just perfect.

 

[Carrie Country]

I have no ideas for the 4th album I just can't wait for it so we can vote stream and request again GO CARRIE WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!!!!(!)

 

[abbeyjones18]

What a neat thread!

1) I think that there definitely should be more upbeat songs, happy songs.
2) I think that there should be less cheating/boy-bashing songs. As much as I love them, I think that there should be less of them, lol.
3) I did miss the big vocals on Play On, and yet, I really liked the toned-down vocals that Play On had. Hopefully, this next album will have a mixture of both!
4) I really liked that Carrie wrote a good portion of Play On, and I hope that she continues to do so. I'm hoping for a mixture of both Carrie songs and other songs, as well.

 

[liveasong]

All I'm asking for is a crossover single ! I'll listen, buy and love everything Carrie will put out!

 

[Carrieflattsfan]

I just want Carrie to make the best album of her career, and something she can stand behind and be proud of.
But being the selfish Carrie fan I am, I do have a wishlist:

1. Carrie needs to release amazing ballads, especially because I hated seeing so many wasted opportunities with gems from "Play On" ("What Can I Say," "Someday When I Stop Loving You).

2. Chose higher-quality upbeat songs. SLT, "Unapologize," and CC were steps in the right direction, but UI could've easily been replaced by something better, catchy as it is.

3. Release songs that aren't so vague lyrically ("Mama's Song," "Undo It.")

4. More power ballads! As much as I love the softer side of Carrie's voice, I do think there was a little too much of those types of songs on this album. I'd like to see a mix of power ballads ("I Know You Won't," "So Small,") with softer ones ("Temporary Home," even MS had a soothing sound to it.)

5. Hire a producer that can make her songs sound softer & less overproduced. I'm not saying she should sing an album of ballads, but I just feel like some of the production choices drowned out her vocals. The ballads complimented her voice perfectly, but I really noticed she was fighting with the production during some of the upbeat songs.

6. Let go of using a specific "theme" (inspirational," "guy-bashing", etc.) I have no problem with Carrie relating to these songs, but I want to see her branch out a bit and have a little more variety. She's done an awesome job of growing with the past three albums, and I really hope she continues by surprising us a little more this time around. So many artists have fallen into a rut of recording the same types of songs; Carrie is too talented to fall into that trap.

7. Summer song/duet would be great as well. Both would be different for her, to people that aren't hardcore fans.

PS- you guys are going to be so disappointed if "Oklahoma Wind" doesn't make the album; don't get your hopes up too much, or it'll be even worse if it doesn't make it.

 

[teesharky]

Great ideas, tee. I agree with a lot of what you said, and I have some of my own as well.

1. An uptempo lead single that gets released to country, pop/CHR, AC, and Hot AC. I know this won't happen, but you never know. I'm not saying I want it to be a remix, just a Cowboy Casanova-type song, except this time they should actually promote it to other formats to draw in more fans. Lady A's "Need You Now" got them a ton of more fans, and they brought a slow of new fans to country music. Granted, they did remix, but it wasn't that different from the country version. I would rather Carrie not remix though, but that doesn't mean she can't appeal to other formats.

2. "Oklahoma Wind" needs to make the album and be one of the singles. This will go down as Carrie's best song in her career thus far, in my opinion. They need to make up for not releasing SWISLY and WCIS by putting this on the album and making sure it becomes a single!

3. Don't release all of the iTunes promotional singles as the radio singles. This totally killed the surprise/excitement factor of the Play On Era for me. I know that none of us knew for sure that those songs would be the actual singles, but it still made things less exciting. In fact, I'd rather them not do any iTunes promotional singles at all (aside from the lead single, obviously).

4. Less boy-bashing songs. This is a given. Carrie needs something fun and uptempo that isn't about a guy.

5. Cover a pop or R&B song. I want to see Carrie cover a song that isn't country or rock, but sort of turn it into a country song. For example, Sara Evans covered Rod Stewart's "My Heart Can't Tell You No" on her newest album, and she put her own country twang in it. The song came out amazingly, and is one of my favorites on her album. So I'd love to see Carrie do something similar.

6. More than 5 singles and worldwide tour. I'd love to see this album last a long time. Release a lot of singles and do a worldwide tour.

7. Less "cheesy" songs and just better lyrics. I'm sorry, but I'm not a fan of "Change" or "Play On". They come off as very corny. I do like the songs, but they are really corny, lyrically. Carrie is one of the biggest acts in the music industry, and probably has access to some of the greatest writers out there. She should really utilize that and take advantage of it. She can really do so much better with some of the songs she puts on her albums.

8. Duet with Shania Twain. I don't know what the chances are of this happening, but Shania is my 2nd favorite behind Carrie. I'd love for them to do a duet together.

I love your ideas too--- and I agree that the itunes singles should not be the exact radio singles as that takes away the surprise factor.

I also loved Cowboy Casanova and it was the best lead single Carrie has put out to date to kick off an album. Awesome awesome song.

I would die of happiness too if Carrie did a duet with Shania! Make it happen! lol

She definitely needs to do a Worldwide tour. Enough waiting already! lol

 

[teesharky]

1: Less Angry Boy Songs Don't get me wrong, I love CC and BHC, in my opinion they're 2 of her best songs, but I dont think she needs soooo much. Play on had CC, UI and SLT and 2 out of those were both singles, so in other words half of the singles were boy-bashing songs, and SLT, although its not really a single is on the charts too! I'm afraid people will just think that's all that she writes about
2: Have Oklahoma Wind! It's such a great song, and it needs to be on her album! It would get such great reviews
3: Have Another Strong 1st Single I love the mood CC created, it was a great fun song, and it was totally different and it took us all by surprise, she should do another song like that to get people excited for the record
4: Another Duet WCIS is my favorite Carrie song ever! I'd love to hear another duet by her, but this time with a more "legit" artist, I mean no one really knows about SOS. Maybe someone like Brad or Miranda, or even someone outside of country
5: Belting I feel like PO lacked some of the really big "Belting" songs like JTTW or IKYW or JAD I loved those!
6: Better Single Choices I feel like the single choices for the PO era weren't the best. TH, UI and MS weren't exactly the 3 strongest songs on the album, I wish they would release them even if Carrie didn't write them, and release the best ones from the album, plus don't release all of the Promotional singles as actual singles

Agree. I love all her bad boy bashing songs so much! lol But I think it is time for her to go in a new direction. lol

I agree the singles choices for PO were not the strongest, with the exception of CC and UI. WCIS and SWISLY needed to be singles.

 

[teesharky]

Well, I'm really more interested in Carrie following her heart and having something come out that is unique even to my own thinking.
So the idea of telling her what "I think would be good" sort of goes against that idea for me.
But! I will play along.
My feeling for the best albums is always that one title seems to lead naturally into the next title. As if they were connected somehow. which actually, some producers do connect songs to create a sense of continuety.
But the whole of the album becomes a "body of work". Each song having a connecting thread that moves you through the entire piece.
These are the kinds of albums that continue to gain notoriety.
Revolution has that. ZBB albums have that. Green Day American Idiot. Dark Side of the Moon. Tapestry.
These kinds of albums are hard to imagine with out all the parts in place.
I hope she can dig really deep and come out with something like this.
It may be too soon. But that is what I would wish for.
And I honestly would not care if it was her most popular. I would love it!
(btw, I felt that SH had that in that many of those songs had a similar thread of moving forward from the past in them)

Agree. One of the things the critics seem to harp on with Carrie is that the album is not a cohesive whole, and it doesn't have a set theme. The songs are great, but the theme is interrupted when you stick in inspriational songs like Change and TH with fun bad boy relationship songs like CC or UI, etc. I think she should try sticking with one theme on this album so it flows as a complete body of work.

 

[AnthonyLovesCarrie]

I love your ideas too--- and I agree that the itunes singles should not be the exact radio singles as that takes away the surprise factor.

I also loved Cowboy Casanova and it was the best lead single Carrie has put out to date to kick off an album. Awesome awesome song.

I would die of happiness too if Carrie did a duet with Shania! Make it happen! lol

She definitely needs to do a Worldwide tour. Enough waiting already! lol

Thanks! Yeah, I'd love to see a Carrie/Shania duet and/or tour, so I hope it happens one day. I'd also like for Carrie to do something with Garth Brooks. I forgot to mention that, so I'll edit my original post lol.

 

[Carrieflattsfan]

Agree. One of the things the critics seem to harp on with Carrie is that the album is not a cohesive whole, and it doesn't have a set theme. The songs are great, but the theme is interrupted when you stick in inspriational songs like Change and TH with fun bad boy relationship songs like CC or UI, etc. I think she should try sticking with one theme on this album so it flows as a complete body of work.

Well, wouldn't that depend on how you define the word "cohesive?" I thought SH & CR had a variety of songs, but they flowed well without going from a rocker to a ballad, and a ballad to a midtempo. I like variety, but it throws off the feel of the album for me when each song has a different feel from the next. It's fine as long as it doesn't seem too jarring.
As an example, SH had a variety of songs/tempos that were all different from each other, but the album flowed so well because it didn't have a seemingly random sequence like going from "Quitter" to "Mama's Song," "Undo It" to "Someday When I Stop Loving You," and SWISLY to "Songs Like This" as an example.

When an album going from one completely different subject/sound to another, it never sounds cohesive to me. From a songwriting & vocal standpoint I would say there's plenty of variety, but in terms of the actual order of songs on the album, I don't think that is cohesive, at least to my ears.

When listening to an album, I also take the quality of the songs into consideration when deciding if an album seems cohesive. SH had strong songs, CR had great songs with a few duds, and PO had incredible songs, from decent, to downright chliche. I still think the album is the best showcase of Carrie's life and career thus far, but the fact that the quality of the songs can be pretty different from one track to another slightly ruins the overall feel of the album for me.

There are so many different factors to consider when deciding if an album is cohesive, and I think a lot of that prospective is based on how each person perceives an album or song.

From an artistic standpoint, I'd say SH is the most cohesive album we have musically from Carrie- but PO is the most cohesive in terms of telling the more personal story of who she is as an artist and individual. Thanks for bringing up this topic, It has the potential to generate an interesting discussion & individual prospectives.

 

[blondemama]

Thanks! Yeah, I'd love to see a Carrie/Shania duet and/or tour, so I hope it happens one day. I'd also like for Carrie to do something with Garth Brooks. I forgot to mention that, so I'll edit my original post lol.

I agree thst CC was a great lead off for first single but I have to stand by JTTW as being best or very least side by side to CC. That song is Epic.