The pivotal
American Idol
moment for
Carrie Underwood
was when she teased her hair to the heavens and sang
Heart
's
"Alone,"
belting out the power ballad with sincerity and a natural flair for drama. It was the surest sign that
Carrie
wasn't merely the country star the show gladly pigeonholed her as, that she was a pop star by any measure. Of course, the great irony was that
had little interest in being a pop star; she wanted to be a country singer, but the sheer magnitude of
meant that she was already a pop star who needed to cross over to country, a reverse of the usual crossover move.
Underwood
pulled off that tricky maneuver with a deceptive ease on her 2005 debut,
Some Hearts
, which turned into a smash success, turning sextuple platinum at a time when many albums struggle to go gold, even surpassing the sales of the original Idol,
Kelly Clarkson
. Such success raised the bar for her 2007 follow-up,
Carnival Ride
. Traditionally, second albums are a place where artists consolidate their strengths or expand their reach, either with an eye toward artistic growth or commercial success, and
chooses the former option, creating a record that is more purely country than her debut. She dials down the pageantry drama that peppered her debut -- there are no
Diane Warren
songs, for instance -- and plays up her humble, all-American persona, singing songs about small towns and big dreams, even attempting to kick up some dirt and grit on the one-night-stand anthem
"Last Name,"
which is
Miranda Lambert
filtered through
Shania Twain
. And one of the striking things about
is how completely
has stepped into the void that
Shania
and
Faith Hill
left behind: the small-town girl made good but who hasn't left her roots behind. In other words, she hasn't made the big pop diva move that
did with
Up!
or
Faith
with
Cry
; she's planted herself firmly within country. Now,
's country is hardly traditionalist -- despite the lack of
tunes, there are plenty of power ballads here, along with light drum loops that aren't commonly heard in Nashville -- but her approach is completely contemporary country, in how it blurs the borders between country and arena rock, something that's perfect for a girl who made her first big splash singing
. Sound and feel do mean a lot, but country records really survive on the strength of their songs, and the remarkable thing about
is that it's stronger song for song than
, some of this due to
herself, who bears four songwriting credits here, often in conjunction with some permutation of
Steve McEwan
Hillary Lindsey
, who pen a bunch of other tunes here. The songs may veer just a bit too close to the big power ballads, but they all work as strong pieces of commercial country, built on surging melodies (all the better for
to belt) and lyrics that play into
's small-town girl persona but are also open-ended enough to be relatable. All this very well may be more calculating than it appears, but the appealing thing about
is that it plays so smoothly and assuredly that you just go along for the ride, especially because
sells these songs completely, making the cliches and cornball phrases believable. It's a gift that
had, but she always seemed larger than life. In contrast,
only sounds larger than life, and she still comes across like the girl next door despite her massive success, and this lingering sense of innocence -- however constructed for stage it may be -- gives an album as big and shiny as
the appearance of a genuine heart, something that no other big country-pop album has had since the glory days of
Come on Over
. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine