Carnival Ride by Carrie Underwood (CD, Oct-2007, 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville)

Carrie Underwood is a pretty girl with a pretty voice, singing pretty songs about, presumably, pretty people. And that makes the whole package - including her new album "Carnival Ride" (Arista), like the multi-platinum, award-winning smash before it "Some Hearts" - all kinda nice, if predictable.
"Carnival Ride" goes down extraordinarily easy - lots of lush, inspirational ballads that make the most of her gorgeous voice and a handful of rock-tinged up-tempo numbers about getting out of town or following your dreams, where she channels the Dixie Chicks, without all that, you know, messy political stuff.
"Carnival Ride" sticks incredibly close to the formula of "Some Hearts," which is the second-biggest selling album of the past two years. The glorious first single "So Small" could be "Jesus Take the Wheel (Part Deux)" - the installment where the once-desperate girl has learned her lessons and can now offer advice, including, "Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand." The fact that "So Small" takes so similar a path - from the tempo to the phrasing to the swell of strings - seems like a minor quibble, considering the stirring results
However, after it happens time and time again, "Carnival Ride" starts to pick up an assembly-line feel that is only staved off by Carrie's standout delivery. She angles for a "Before He Cheats"-type pop crossover with "Last Name," right down to the plodding guitar. And "I Know You Won't" fills the role of big pop ballad "Inside Your Heaven."
Carrie does stretch a little, letting a bit of her sass shine through on "The More Boys I Meet," with some nice images of dating duds ("oversized pants with an ego to match") and the killer country hook of "The more boys I meet, the more I love my dog." There's some Coldplay to "Twisted" and some Miranda Lambert-styled spunk to "Get Out of This Town" and "All-American Girl," but only trace amounts.
It's hard to be this blank a slate for this long a time, but Carrie
clearly works at it. She's trying to be a singer, not a personality - kind of refreshing, in a time when private lives so often triumph over public work. But as nice as "Carnival Ride" has turned out, Underwood will simply be going around in circles until she invests a little more of herself into the process.

Taylor Swift is one talented teen! She had a hand again in every song on her highly anticipated sophomore CD - this time she wrote 7, and co-wrote 6. The first single, "Love Story" is a good example of how she can combine great lyrics with a catchy beat - and then produce a smash crossover hit. The most remarkable thing about the album is that it is incredibly balanced...and almost every song is so good that it could be released as a radio single. I think it is now safe to say that she is a rising star who will just keep on rising!

Taylor opens the album with the strong title track "Fearless", and ends the album with another powerful song, "Change". In the middle is a sure huge hit "The Way I Loved You" - a song that she wrote with John Rich. "Breathe" is a good example of her more acoustic side - a simple but nice song in which she wrote and sings with Colbie Caillat. Just like on her first album, Taylor isn't afraid to put real-life names into her songs. "Hey Stephen" is about a guy she has a crush on, but according to taylor he doesn't know it - at least until he listens to the album! "Fifteen" is her most personal song, a bittersweet gem where she sings about her freshman year and her best friend for the past 5 years, Abigail. "White Horse" (which has already been featured on Grey's Anatomy) is a well done heartbreaking breakup song. Also, her writing seems to have matured and grown up a lot in the past 2 years. Take "The Best Day" for example - which is a completely different but great song, which is written about her family. She appeals to such a wide audience, and executes this flawlessly here on Fearless.

It's incredible how quickly Taylor crossed over and became not only a big country star, but a huge pop star also. It took only her second single - Teardrops On My Guitar - for her to become amazingly popular in mainstream music! Then she continued to release 3 more hits (two of them #1) off her debut album. Talk about a hard act to follow - but I can't see this trend stopping anytime soon with Fearless - this album is a major home run. She isn't the same country artist who sang "Tim Mcgraw", and I understand that some people will not be happy about that. But look for her to just become even bigger and more popular, with more #1's and crossover pop hits. Taylor's sophomore CD is very well done...filled with excellent, self-penned, radio-friendly top 40 hits...which will leave Carrie Underwood with some tough competition as top female country artist for a few years to come! Overall ~ 9/10 ~

Sometimes, putting a label on an artist and/or a record with a genre/style title can misguide people and keep them away from good music just because of silly preconceptions.

I know a lot of people turn their noses on country music - I have this attitude myself - but only if they knew that some country releases are not actually "that country", perceptions on some artists and their albums would be different and maybe a lot better. This is the case with "Carnival Ride" by Carrie Underwood.

From a first listening, anyone would easily recognize elements of country music (violins, hand claps and a male background vocals that reminds Shania Twain's music). But above all, listeners with some good taste in music would agree that this is not a "root country" record, but something of pleasant and easy listening that is worth having it, regardless of the label that it receives.

From this 13-track album, my recommendations are for "So Small", "Just a Dream", "Get Out of This Town", "I Told You So" and "Wheel of the World", all beautiful songs. The awful one (every record has at least one) is "The More Boys I Meet". It is so awful to me that I simply have no comments on it...

The final word: go and take this album!

I loved Carrie's first album and she has some great songs on Carnival Ride. She co-wrote many of the songs for this CD and collaborated on the others. This album shows that she is a true talent and not a one-hit wonder like many of the other American Idol "stars". It is also not strictly country - she mixes some elements of rock and folk into her songs which shows that she is a versatile singer unlike so many contemporary artists. This CD is definitely worth the time and money!

I bought this CD cuz I really liked her first one, but Carnival Ride sux. This CD does not have even a little bit of country sound or feel to it. One song sounds like the mocarana. Another is about getting drunk, getting married and not even knowing her own last name. Another is about how people are bad and you should get a dog. The music is all pop and it doesn't even sound like her.