Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride Review

There is much wrong with the oft superficial hit show, and hit maker American Idol, but the show has a knack for finding female talent.  Carrie Underwood who won the fourth season of the much watched Fox classic is one of those talents, sort of.  Her first album, Some Hearts (certified 6x platinum), was rushed onto store shelves and downloads queues just a few short months after she won Idol, in 2005 and spawned the smash hit Before He Cheats, which is still on some music charts.  Lesser hits include Wasted, Jesus Take The Wheel, Inside Your Heaven, and Don't Forget to Remember Me.   

Then in the fall of this year she released her second album Carnival Ride (already certified 2x Platinum), which has already spawned a number one (C&W) hit, So Small, track No. 3 (currently No. 11 on the Billboard C&W charts).  And the next release track No. 2 All-American Girl, co-written by Underwood, is currently climbing the Billboard C&W charts. 

Accolades notwithstanding, Carnival Ride falls short of the musical mark for me.  While there are (fleeting) hints of Underwood's Oklahoma upbringing sprinkled throughout Carnival Ride, there was enough mod-American feel on the CD to label it anything but slightly marginal Pop.  Throughout much of the album Underwood sing in the same key: high and screeching; there was little soul in her voice, and that leaves the whole CD flat and lifeless. 

The much lauded All-American Girl is a choppy mess; the sentiment and melody are there but the execution of the lyrics is an experiment gone tragically wrong.  Long notes are suddenly cut off or end without much flair.  And at times Underwood voice weakens until it trails off into nothing; what were they thinking? 

The first hit from the CD, Track No. 3 So Small, is a trite been-there-heard-that-before nothing of a song about the life and love as the salvation of us all.  Underwood's vocal performance is acceptable, but then there's the one octave problem again; where is the range, the talent that made some of the songs from Some Hearts such a hoot to listen to?

By far the best track on the CD is track No. 8 Last Name a song like Before He Cheats from Some Hearts is a down-home bran-burning fiddle screeching vocally fun song to listen to.  And here Underwood seems to find more of her authentic self, more of her country roots, and she seems to have fun belting out the song. 

It is undeniable that Carrie Underwood has legions of fan-my thirteen year old daughter among them, she loves this album-that will help make Carnival Ride every bit as successful as her first CD.  However, the CD offers very little for the unconverted, in terms of Underwood's artistic or vocal growth.  Carnival Ride is a pleasant enough offering; i.e. it is wholesome and pleasant both of which make for a suitable commercially viable Pop, or Country-Pop CD, but it does not make for very aural art.

Most of the songwriting (despite and perhaps because of Underwood's contributions) and all too typical over production lack substance, style, and soul, and as a result Carnival Ride is a lackluster example of both.  Despite the contribution of professional songwriting notables like Hillary Lindsey, Cathy Dennis, and Luke Laird, outside of Last Name, there isn't a song on the album that's stands out or is all that noteworthy.  In other words the bulk of Carnival Ride is entirely formulaic and forgettable.