Carrie Underwood Fans

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

It's Been a Few Months, Is Blown Away Still Carrie's Best Work?

huggablebri

New member
Still think Some Hearts is the best album. Then the next two got worse, then Blown Away got better and is my second fave.
 

thunder92

Active member
I don't think there are many misteps on the album. Every song on the album has at least one good qulity imo. Nety is lyrically cheesy but it is musically great. Tgfh is lyrically well written but is on a cheesy topic and it also is song beautifully. See you again is one if my favorites. The music is beautiful imo and the lyrics may not be the most profound but they mean a lot.
 

ramb

Active member
It's really har to say which album is her best.
SH has the best lead single.
BA has the best song Carrie ever recorded, BA.
But CR is really good as a whole.

I'll go wih this:

BA best so far.
Then CR.
Then SH really close (JTTW, BHC and Wasted are masterpieces).
And then, a little far, PO. I love it, but there are no huge stand-outs there.
 

carebearcarrie

Active member
Blown Away to me gave us great SONGS. but as a album as a WHOLE that goes to Carnival Ride. Blown Away gave me new favorites as BA, TBC, OWT, WAY, etc. But songs that just fit together like a puzzle is CR. That album doesnt have one bad thing. its perfect.
 

allamericangirl8

New member
It really does depend on how you personally qualify a great album. I qualify it by if the songs, y'know, sound like they belong on the same album and if the tracklisting is perfect, tells a story. So, for instance, I would say Appetite For Destruction is a better GN'R album than Use Your Illusion 1 even though the songs on UYI1 are superior.

In that sense, I would place SH and CR slightly above Blown Away. I think tracks 2-6 are masterfully placed, but GG shouldn't've opened the album, WAY shouldn't've closed the album, and TGFH and GIG shouldn't be next to each other. Actually, GG would've been a great album closer. OW would've been best, but I don't wanna offend anyone with bringing up that possibility. BA definitely has the best songs of Carrie's catalog, though. It's like the UYI1 of Carrie land, tbh.

I would say it's her best effort, but I would personally make a couple tiny adjustments. Ideally, the tracklisting would've been:

1. Blown Away
2. Two Black Cadillacs
3. See You Again
4. Do You Think About Me
5. Forever Changed
6. Good Girl
7. One Way Ticket
8. Good in Goodbye
9. Leave Love Alone
10. Cupid's Got a Shotgun
11. Who Are You
12. Nobody Knows
13. Wine After Whiskey
14. Oklahoma Wind

Or if I couldn't add NK and OW...

1. Blown Away
2. Two Black Cadillacs
3. See You Again
4. Do You Think About Me
5. Forever Changed
6. One Way Ticket
7. Thank God For Hometowns
8. Leave Love Alone
9. Cupid's Got a Shotgun
10. Nobody Ever Told You
11. Good in Goodbye
12. Wine After Whiskey
13. Who Are You
14. Good Girl
 

carriebest

Active member
It's kinda hard for me to tell which Carrie's album is the best because they all have different taste in it.

SOME HEARTS :

This album is definitely a masterpiece. It's full of awesome songs. Some of the songs have even become legends.

Wasted - This is probably a fan favorite and it's one of Carrie's highest charting single in the Billboard Country Song Year End. Nobody can get tired of this song.
Before He Cheats - This is 'THE' song that we will still be hearing in the next 10 years on radio.
Jesus,. Take The Wheel - Strong vocal, strong lyric, strong melody. It's definitely one of the best Country songs ever.

I can't name one song that i love less in this album. I enjoy it from the very first second to the last one.

CARNIVAL RIDE :

It's a whole new level for Carrie. The songs in CR are not as strong as the songs in SH. There are not many songs that can be chosen as singles here. While SH is like a compilation of great songs, CR is more like a solid album. All the songs are what makes the album. All the songs are what define the album. It flows and if you take out one song from it, it will be odd.

I still wish they had released TWISTED / WHEEL OF THE WORLD / THE MORE BOYS I MEET as single instead of LAST NAME. :)

PLAY ON :

Carrie took quite a different direction from her last two albums with this one. It sounds more Pop (No offense here).
PO is like SH , albums that are consisted of great songs . Compilation of great songs that made the album.
It's probably Carrie's weakest album BECAUSE there are many songs that have the same there . Example : CC, SLT, UI --> Boy bashing (even tho the story line is different).
In addition to that, the single choices were not excellent.

UNDO IT burnt quickly for me. MAMA'S SONG is a sweet song but it's too weak to be single.

They should've released QUITTER/SOMEDAY WHEN I STOP LOVING YOU/THIS TIME instead.

BUT PO has given me my all time Carrie Underwood favorite song : TEMPORARY HOME.

BLOWN AWAY :

BA is a very innovative album. Carrie took a huge risk at this. It doesn't sound very country but it's still country music.
This album flows like CR and it's consisted of great songs that almost all have the potential to be singles.
I love this album because i can hear Carrie's soft sweet vocal in FC and NETY and DYTAM.

I love almost all the songs here. I didn't like TWO BLACK CADILLACS at first few listen but now i love it.

Songs that i like less are THANK GOD FOR HOMETOWNS and CUPID'S GOT A SHOTGUN. These two burns quickly for me.

I love NOBODY EVER TOLD YOU. i don't understand why some of you doesn't like it. It's probably one of the strongest ones in this album.

My single choice for this era :

1. GG
2. BA
3. Good In Goodbye/Do You Think About Me
4. Two Black Cadillacs
5. Good In Goodbye/Do You Think About Me
6. One Way Ticket
7. Nobody Ever Told You

Katy Perry can release 7 singles from one album, so can Carrie. lol



BOTTOM LINE: i can't rank which one is my fav. SH/CR/BA is definitely my jam. PO is great and i love it but it's the weakest.
 

JB172

New member
Here is my list

1. Carnival Ride - Top to bottom my favorite album and it's not really that close
2. Blown Away - Just a tad a head of PO due to WAW, GG & FC.
3. Play On - Underrated album IMO.
4. Some Hearts - Outside of the great singles the rest of album is mostly filler IMO, which happens when you roll a album out that fast.
 

epicamends

New member
I think tracks 2-6 are masterfully placed, but GG shouldn't've opened the album, WAY shouldn't've closed the album, and TGFH and GIG shouldn't be next to each other.

I have to disagree with GG and WAY - I think they were perfectly placed on the album. GG was the perfect transition from PO to BA. The subject matter was familiar enough to not be too jarring of a change, but sonically it was quite different than Carrie's previous material, and in that sense a great introduction to the inventiveness of songs like BA, TBC, OWT, etc. I think WAY perfectly sums up Carrie as a person - as most of her album closers do (WOTW, PO, and now WAY). I can't imagine it fitting anywhere else on the album besides the closer.

I do agree that TGFH and GIG shouldn't have been placed next to each other. They're both rather slow songs, and it kind of brings the pace of the album down going from NETY & OWT to two slow songs in a row.

I still think BA is Carrie's best album, and for me seems more cohesive than CR and definitely PO, what with the constant weather references and such. Idk, it just works. It feels truly like an ALBUM and not just a collection of great songs that have no connection to each other.

Amd yes, OW would've been perfect on BA, which leads me to the conclusion that if Carrie wouldn't include it on this album, she'll never include it on any album ever. I can't imagine it fitting as perfectly on another album as it would have on BA.
 

mlawlor

New member
1. CR - Best album in terms of standout hits on one album. Even non hits of the album were promoted to mainstream audiences.
2. BA - A great set of amazing songs. GG outdoes CC, BA is amazing, and all the other songs (DYTAM, OWT, FC, & WAY especially) can perfectly fit into any ones specific musical needs. If BA is not seriously considered for AOTY based just on this, then I'll totally loose faith in what constitutes "good music" at all awards shows.
3. SH - Showed the amazing future potential of an AI alumnus and included a few amazing tracks. If it was not for SH, we would not have gotten "hooked", and expected anything less.
4. PO - Underrated album. I agree with Carriebest's review for it. There's almost a sense that things could have been better, with the GG / CC comparison thing and how This Time on tour, even while sung on the back of a flying truck, sounded different/better live, than on the album
 

jaks_weyn

Well-known member
carrieflattsfan, i like your avee <3

One thing that is in BA that captures me is how varied the songs are... they are really different from one other yet they do seem to tie up and have a common theme.. not sure if it's the wind references, weather, distance or all of the above... plus it's an album i'd like to listen to in order and from start to end without skipping... the other 3, i tend to shuffle and skip some songs...

I like PO's songs... but the songs are kind of all over the place... the songs are great! i love almost all of them, but they are great as individual songs and not as one unit unlike the songs in BA... plus the singles are not the best representation of the album... i agree that it could have gone a different direction if there were 5 singles and MS was not chosen as a single... but then again, i think the release of MS was probably the reason why Carrie thought about the career... that's IMO though... :D
 

allamericangirl8

New member
I have to disagree with GG and WAY - I think they were perfectly placed on the album. GG was the perfect transition from PO to BA. The subject matter was familiar enough to not be too jarring of a change, but sonically it was quite different than Carrie's previous material, and in that sense a great introduction to the inventiveness of songs like BA, TBC, OWT, etc. I think WAY perfectly sums up Carrie as a person - as most of her album closers do (WOTW, PO, and now WAY). I can't imagine it fitting anywhere else on the album besides the closer.

Yeah, see, for me, GG feels tacked on to the front end of the album. The transition between GG and BA doesn't feel smooth, and, in my mind, the album really starts with BA.

That could also be that I was listening to a stream of the album a week (or two?) before the album came out, and my cap didn't include GG (because that would be redundant). So my download of GG literally was tacked on to the album.
 

Caio

New member
I really like Blown Away, is definitely the most daring album of Carrie ... but for me the best album of their career remains "Play On". Play On is the most personal album of Carrie, is the album that she passes more their emotions.

01. Play On (the most personal)
02. Blown Away (the most daring)
03. Carnival Ride (strongest)
04. Some Hearts (the most cohesive)
 

lab

New member
I don't see TGFH as a misstep - it's grown in stature and affection for me with repeat listens. I think the "home town" theme is significant for Carrie - and probably for quite a few of her listeners in the Country community (both those who've directly experienced the home town ethos themselves, and those who are city and suburb dwellers with a nostalgic identification with an imagined rural idyll (the latter group making up a significant and growing part of the radio audience). However, the theme in TGFH can work two ways - there are also people for whom the home town ethos has no resonance at all, or sometimes a negative resonance (a stifling memory of conformity and petty preoccupation with other people's business.) Hence it's potentially a divisive theme, that will work for some listeners and not others. I think it's a suitable song, though, for an album in which Carrie has sensibly tried to mix innovative and adventurous songs with a range of songs that span the potential range of her listeners, across the contemporary Country and not-so-Country spectrum.

And that, I think, is one of the strengths of this album. We have songs like GG and FC that take Carrie vocally into very different, but equally remarkable, challenges even she probably wasn't sure she could triumph in. We have a strongly symbolic and elemental survival-from-abuse song, and a broodingly powerful Gothic murder ballad. We have songs that address different facets of the Country spectrum (the Roots stomp that drives LLA, the great Country Rock feel of CGAS, the neo-traditional WAW - and, even though it's far from my favourite, the "Margaritaville" sound of OWT). I think it's into that spectrum that the nostalgia of TGFH fits - and, lyrically, it's a very good example of its type ...............


I agree with you!!! Instead of using the word "misstep" - I will use "DIFFERENT PERCEPTION" - DIFFERENT STROKES to DIFFERENT FOLKS - DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. At least, that is what I was thinking what they meant, when I was reading their "posts". "Blown Away" album is Carrie's MOST INNOVATIVE album to date - "as perceived by Carrie and Team Carrie and THE MUSIC MARKET". Because of winning Season 4 American Idol Show in 2005 - Carrie's FAN BASE became the "melting pot" of FANS in mainstream pop/rock music and country music - DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF MUSIC "melting together" into a HARMONIOUS WHOLE with a "common culture of music". Meeting a lot of different Carrie FANS in A LOT OF MULTIPLE CITIES during her live concert tours indicates that they have DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC PREFERENCE.

"MY" Ranking:

1. Blown Away - "THE BEST OF THE BEST"

2. Carnival Ride

3. Play On

4. Some Hearts

"MY" Ranking on SONGS:

1. Jesus Take The Wheel - "THE BEST OF THE BEST"

2. "Blown Away" and "Before He Cheats" - TIE in SECOND Place

3. Wasted

4. I Know You Won't

5. Good Girl

6. Last Name (80's ROCK version with bluesy ROCK ENDING.)

7. Cowboy Casanova

8. Undo It

9. etc.
 

lab

New member
I don't see TGFH as a misstep - it's grown in stature and affection for me with repeat listens. I think the "home town" theme is significant for Carrie - and probably for quite a few of her listeners in the Country community (both those who've directly experienced the home town ethos themselves, and those who are city and suburb dwellers with a nostalgic identification with an imagined rural idyll (the latter group making up a significant and growing part of the radio audience). However, the theme in TGFH can work two ways - there are also people for whom the home town ethos has no resonance at all, or sometimes a negative resonance (a stifling memory of conformity and petty preoccupation with other people's business.) Hence it's potentially a divisive theme, that will work for some listeners and not others. I think it's a suitable song, though, for an album in which Carrie has sensibly tried to mix innovative and adventurous songs with a range of songs that span the potential range of her listeners, across the contemporary Country and not-so-Country spectrum.

And that, I think, is one of the strengths of this album. We have songs like GG and FC that take Carrie vocally into very different, but equally remarkable, challenges even she probably wasn't sure she could triumph in. We have a strongly symbolic and elemental survival-from-abuse song, and a broodingly powerful Gothic murder ballad. We have songs that address different facets of the Country spectrum (the Roots stomp that drives LLA, the great Country Rock feel of CGAS, the neo-traditional WAW - and, even though it's far from my favourite, the "Margaritaville" sound of OWT). I think it's into that spectrum that the nostalgia of TGFH fits - and, lyrically, it's a very good example of its type.

There is, in fact, only one song that I find disappointing - SYA (which, if it was anyone but Carrie, I'd never listen to again.). That personal judgment, by the way, has nothing to do with the lyric - which is an inspiring message - but everything to do with the musical style, which I find very unappealing. That, though, is neither here nor there. I still support its inclusion, and don't regard it as a misstep, because it has appeal for another part of Carrie's listener spectrum, and therefore justifies its place on a very varied album.

So my overall verdict is that this album has stood up to expectations and has grown in interest, and in the discovery of more detail and points to admire with repeat listening. For me it is her strongest studio album yet (a feeling I never had when PO came out, despite my love of SWISLY and SLT as individual tracks)


I missed the LAST TWO paragraphs when I quoted this - I also consider those as VERY IMPORTANT "PERCEPTION" and "REASONING".
 

liveasong

Well-known member
1. Blown Away
2. Carnival Ride (slightly above Play On)
3. Play On
4. Some Hearts
 
Last edited:

clh_hilary

New member
I still think "Carnival Ride" is better. "Blown Away" have higher hightlights, but as an album CR trumps all.
 

robinannhunt

New member
It is funny how people choose different songs and different CDs as favorites. My friend thinks SH was still the best CD.
 
Top