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Carrie Underwood - Play On
| Music-mix.ew |
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Carrie Underwood, Play On (19/Arista Nashville) Note: Underwood’s label didn’t make her new album available early for press; Play On is out today. If it seems vaguely insulting to call the smashingly successful Idol alum’s material formulaic, know at least that it is, three albums in, one the most well-honed formulas in the business. Underwood’s M.O.—equal parts good-riddance-to-bad-boys stompers and fervent, string-swelling balladry—has served her well, and she’s no fool. Hard-charging rocker “Undo It,” with its stuttering power-chord chorus (“I wanna uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-undo it”) gives first single “Casanova” a run for its kiss-off glory; the banjo-goosed revenge anthem “Songs Like This” comes in a close third. Inevitably, the saucy stuff, which she embodies with easy, appealing verve, tends to subsume the ballads, which too often substitute slick Hallmark-card sentimentality for genuine affect....full text |
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| Nytimes |
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The musical legacy of “American Idol” can, apart from a few hiccups, be distilled down to two words: Carrie Underwood. Her later success, though, was never preordained. When she won during that show’s fourth season in 2005 it was by no means clear that Ms. Underwood’s acclaim for singing songs by other people on television was as valid as other country singers’ acclaim for singing songs by other people in honky-tonks. The subsequent rise of Taylor Swift seemed to do Ms. Underwood no favors. Ms. Swift radiated an authentic youthful glow; by comparison, Ms. Underwood is stiffly mature — like an emissary of the old guard trying to fit in at the mall. Last year, at 25, she was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, less than three years after her “Idol” win. Last year Ms. Swift released a song called “Fifteen,” about being 15....full text |
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| Allmusic |
| Daisy in her hair aside, Carrie Underwood looks flat-out glamorous on the cover of Play On, which is a pretty fair indication of what awaits listeners on her third album. Carrie is still nominally a country artist and sometimes will sing supported by fiddles and steel guitar, but this is crossover pop pure and simple, whether it's the thundering rhythms on the Shania-styled strut "Cowboy Casanova" or the succession of maudlin melodies on the preponderance of power ballads. Many of these overwrought ballads are infused with a heavy-handed social consciousness -- Carrie decries hunger on "Change" and homelessness on "Temporary Home" -- unfortunately reminiscent of Idol Gives Back, and they're not the only AmIdol connection here, as fourth wheel Kara DioGuardi co-wrote the strained sassiness of "Undo It" and the sticky, tacky "Mama's Song" with Underwood herself. Carrie takes a much stronger presence as a writer here, co-authoring seven of the 13 songs, and she's attracted to hookless showstoppers designed to showcase her powerful voice, all glory notes with no glory. When she sticks to tunes written solely by the professionals, Play On does have some slick pleasures, particularly on the breezy "Quitter" and "This Time," songs built on solid melodies and delivered without flash, relying on craft and Carrie's considerable small-town charm -- a gift that remains intact despite the misguided attempt on the rest of Play On as if she's nothing but a diva....full text |
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