Nashville!

By Featured Contributing Editor Mandy Phillips

Carrie Underwood’s sophomore album, Carnival Ride, is all over the map when it comes to success and failures. There are certainly some wonderful songs that showcase Underwood’s big voice and appeal, but there are just as many selections that seem to not be sure if they actually belong to Underwood. Understandably, Underwood is a young artists with a number of influences on her career, and that insecurity of who she is as an artist seems to shine through with Carnival Ride. Some fans of more traditional country may find the album to be a bit too laced with pop music production, though pop fans will no doubt find the album to be too countrified.

<

Underwood is unarguably a talented vocalist, and there are plenty of songs that showcase those abilities. And in an era when young artists like Underwood often fall into singing songs about falling in love and falling back out, one song in particular stands out as powerful and striking. “Just a Dream” tells the story of a young war widow, a tale which is unfortunately likely to resonate strongly with a generation all too familiar with the subject.

And though it sounds a bit more like lounge music than country music, “I Know You Won’t” is another powerful, controlled vocal performance. A cover of Randy Travis’ “I Told You So” is a somewhat fun surprise for long-time fans of country music, while “Get Out of This Town” sounds like the commercially successful country music of the mid 1990s - and it works wonderfully.

A couple of songs, though, seem a bit misplaced on a Carrie Underwood album. “The More Boys I Meet” sounds more Miranda Lambert than Carrie Underwood, while “Twisted” could be a hit for a pop artist like Kelly Clarkson.

Taking the route that Underwood has into the music industry, though, it’s no surprise that Carnival Ride blends genres, sounds, and styles as the young star works to better define who she is and who she wants to be as an artist. Enjoy the album with a grain of salt and with the premise that as time goes on, Underwood will whittle away at her own uniqueness and will be able to deliver the same great talent showcased on Carnival Ride with better continuity and substance than this effort manages.