My bottom 3 (leaving out the bonus track - though I'm afraid that would be in this group, if we were including it):
---Mexico
---Clock Don't Stop
---Relapse
My Top 3 (this is much harder as I have at least a top 5 - 6)
---Like I'll Never You Again
---Smoke Break
---Choctaw County Affair
(the first two are such a departure for Carrie - and definitely, in my view, a big step forward, stylistically, that including them was easy. CCA, though, was a struggle because it had to fight with two thematically similar songs, but I went for it because it was the most radical, and unusual of the three)
Although we were asked for 3, I'd like to add a special mention for "Chaser" - the biggest "grower" for me. I think this song (a Carrie co-write) has at least two aspects that make it an album standout:
a) it encapsulates one of Carrie's defining qualities - her ability to draw on a variety of influences, while still rooting a song in a core genre loyalty (I would disagree with people who describe it as Pop - for me, it's a song that comes closest to explaining what Carrie understands by "contemporary Country", in the sense that it combines innovation with a vocal and melody structure that are more authentic than much that is played on the radio format today)
b) both her vocal and her writing show what I would regard as a growing maturity and confidence. She achieves a subtlety in her singing, without relying on pure power vocals - and the structure of the song is nicely balanced between the verse development and the choruses, with the latter not becoming over dominant, with some good variations in musical style.
(Sorry to go on at length on that - but I wanted to make the point that not naming it in the top three is a sign of the
richness of choice that there
is among the top songs on
Storyteller!)
My bottom 3 (leaving out the bonus track - though I'm afraid that would be in this group, if we were including it):
---Mexico
---Clock Don't Stop
---Relapse
My Top 3 (this is much harder as I have at least a top 5 - 6)
---Like I'll Never You Again
---Smoke Break
---Choctaw County Affair
(the first two are such a departure for Carrie - and definitely, in my view, a big step forward, stylistically, that including them was easy. CCA, though, was a struggle because it had to fight with two thematically similar songs, but I went for it because it was the most radical, and unusual of the three)
Although we were asked for 3, I'd like to add a special mention for "Chaser" - the biggest "grower" for me. I think this song (a Carrie co-write) has at least two aspects that make it an album standout:
a) it encapsulates one of Carrie's defining qualities - her ability to draw on a variety of influences, while still rooting a song in a core genre loyalty (I would disagree with people who describe it as Pop - for me, it's a song that comes closest to explaining what Carrie understands by "contemporary Country", in the sense that it combines innovation with a vocal and melody structure that are more authentic than much that is played on the radio format today)
b) both her vocal and her writing show what I would regard as a growing maturity and confidence. She achieves a subtlety in her singing, without relying on pure power vocals - and the structure of the song is nicely balanced between the verse development and the choruses, with the latter not becoming over dominant, with some good variations in musical style.
(Sorry to go on at length on that - but I wanted to make the point that not naming it in the top three is a sign of the richness of choice that there is among the top songs on Storyteller!)
Lol at Clock Don't Stop being almost unanimously the least liked here at cf. Carrie's vocal on it is great as always, but I just can't at the lyrics.
It's that inane second verse...Lol at Clock Don't Stop being almost unanimously the least liked here at cf. Carrie's vocal on it is great as always, but I just can't at the lyrics.
It's that inane second verse...