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