bigbluenote
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Post by bigbluenote on Jan 3, 2011 23:00:15 GMT -5
LMAO at the last few posts.
I also think "Play On" is a strong album, I think it's very comparable to her previous two efforts.
I don't believe Carrie has any interest on "regaining the pop audience she once had". She's a country music artist and makes amazing country tracks, not pop tracks.
I do agree that she has become a bit formulaic (and dare I say it too, Martina McBride-ish). This image of Martina, if she's not careful, will be widely realized by devoted country music listeners, whom I think she gains more of with each single release. Once (if) that happens, she won't be a consistent top 5 artist.
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Arabella21
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Post by Arabella21 on Jan 4, 2011 1:11:54 GMT -5
There's also the Sentimental Family Song category ("Don't Forget to Remember Me", "All-American Girl", "Mama's Song"). The singles this era make it seem like the whole album was nothing but retreads of her old hits. She changed it up a little with Carnival Ride--"Just a Dream" and "I Told You So"--but only after she'd ticked off the Inspirational/Sentimental/Naughty Carrie boxes first.
For the general public, your singles are your album. It's not really about her going pop or chasing a teenage audience, though maybe she could have chased for crossover appeal a little harder at the beginning of the CR era. "So Small" as the first single? That was no way to retain all those pop fans who were liking BHC (and maybe that was the point). To me, it doesn't makes you a sell out to be business savvy. I think the track listing of PO could've been exactly the same, but the sales would've been much better if her singles hadn't been so...familiar. I liked the start with CC, but after that...eh. There's obviously a comfort level with certain kinds of material for Carrie, which is true for every artist, but when does that become a creative rut?
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Post by countryfan1985 on Jan 4, 2011 4:27:37 GMT -5
I have a question, is Carrie going to be at the PCA's (People's Choice Awards)?
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Post by justlurkingaround on Jan 4, 2011 8:20:41 GMT -5
^ As of now, no.
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carrieidol1
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Post by carrieidol1 on Jan 4, 2011 11:59:39 GMT -5
However, she is shown in the commercials accepting her award last year. She is shown in the music category segment of the commercial with Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber. That leads me to believe she won something, as those are some of the most popular acts from the past year.
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Post by justlurkingaround on Jan 4, 2011 14:08:08 GMT -5
^ I hope so :)
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Post by countrygirl918 on Jan 4, 2011 14:20:15 GMT -5
I have a question, is Carrie going to be at the PCA's (People's Choice Awards)? Carrie confirmed with a fan at a recent meet and greet that she will not be attending the PCA's, but will be attending the Golden Globes.
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mairy
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Post by mairy on Jan 4, 2011 15:40:41 GMT -5
Maybe I'm missing something, but the press release from Lori McKenna's new album mentions that Carrie has recently cut at least one song writen by her. Did we know something about this?
UMPG Nashville songwriter Lori McKenna is planning the Jan. 25 release of her new album Lorraine. The hit songwriter has recent cuts by Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Faith Hill, LeAnne Rimes, Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood.
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Typo
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Post by Typo on Jan 4, 2011 15:50:41 GMT -5
AH! Please let this be true. I love Lori McKenna.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2011 18:54:57 GMT -5
I do agree that she has become predictable in a way, but I still love her. She can sing anything, and I'll buy it and still be a huge fan.
But I do want a LOT of different material for her next album. I want her and her writers/producer(s) to think outside the box.
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realityBITES
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Post by realityBITES on Jan 4, 2011 19:01:06 GMT -5
I'm all for out of the box thinking, but if anything, I hope the album has a more authentic-country feel to it. I also hope she has some great uptempo songs on the next album. That's the one area where I felt PO lacked, despite CC (which I consider one of my top 5 Carrie songs).
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Gravity.
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Post by Gravity. on Jan 4, 2011 19:29:02 GMT -5
I see where a lot of you are coming from with the uptempos, but I've never been a fan of Carrie's uptempo songs (other than "Before He Cheats" obviously). Ballads and midtempos are where she does her best.
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Rurry
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Post by Rurry on Jan 4, 2011 19:32:55 GMT -5
I liked Play On a lot, it's a very strong album and I liked it better than Carnival Ride. But I do think Carrie should try some new things with her next album to avoid being samey. It would be nice to see her step out of her comfort zone a little and do things that maybe we wouldn't expect her to do...she got started a bit with that this album with songs like Quitter and even Cowboy Casanova to an extent, but I'd like to see her try even more new things next album.
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Post by countryfan1985 on Jan 4, 2011 19:33:19 GMT -5
Ok Guys, Thanks for answering my question about the PCA's.
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Post by CarrieUfan on Jan 4, 2011 19:48:54 GMT -5
I think her best uptempo songs were on Carnival Ride, like Last Name, Get out of this Town, Flat On The Floor, Crazy Dreams. They were, imo, much better and more country then most of Play On's uptempo tracks.
The ballads were very good though this album, I hope she records more songs like SWISLY and WCIS, and less of songs like Undo It, because even though I quite liked it, I think she's capable of much better songs than that. She just needs to find the right songwriters to write with for this next album.
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Typo
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Post by Typo on Jan 4, 2011 20:29:42 GMT -5
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carrieidol1
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Post by carrieidol1 on Jan 4, 2011 22:23:09 GMT -5
Two 1,000,000+ tours
You rarely see that done by Country females these days. I believe Taylor is the only one who has accomplished this since Shania Twain, I assume?
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neally
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Post by neally on Jan 4, 2011 23:20:53 GMT -5
So unappreciated. That's Carrie's best co-write lyrically speaking, IMO. 100% agree. That song is criminally underrated. It's probably the best feel good song that Carrie has co-written, IMO. *Goes off to listen to it after months*
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_adriano.
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Post by _adriano. on Jan 5, 2011 5:53:49 GMT -5
"Play On" really needed a "Crazy Dreams", in my opinion. It would be the perfect song to be released as a fifth single. An uptempo track that is different from what Carrie usually releases and that it's actually radio friendly.
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Post by justlurkingaround on Jan 5, 2011 10:16:32 GMT -5
I actually don't really like Crazy Dreams. I think a "You Won't Find This" kind of song would be nice.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2011 11:37:16 GMT -5
I actually don't really like Crazy Dreams. I think a "You Won't Find This" kind of song would be nice. I agree with this. "Crazy Dreams" is a good song, but I usually skip it when listening to Carnival Ride. "You Won't Find This" is a really good song though, and I like it a little more than "Crazy Dreams".
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Post by 43dudleyvillas on Jan 5, 2011 12:01:20 GMT -5
I'm compiling a list of topics Carrie can no longer sing about if she doesn't want to be accused of chasing formula. So far, I've got God, family and toolish men. Anything else? Not sure how much of a country album that leaves. OK, I'm somewhat kidding, and I really don't want to make light of a valid discussion point when it comes to Carrie's single choices so far. But at the same time, I'm not sure I would characterize "Temporary Home" and "Jesus, Take the Wheel" as being born of the same formula...the two songs have different messages and sound quite different. I can see the argument for putting "Undo It" in the wannabe BHC category, but "Cowboy Casanova"'s tempo and its combination of honkytonk-flavored chorus and rock production made it unformulaic, in my view. And "Don't Forget to Remember Me," "All-American Girl" and "Mama's Song" strike me as markers for where Carrie is in her life. The latter two have flaws as songs, but what I'm trying to say is that I think there's a value to having songs like them on Carrie's albums and even as singles, as long as the writing is as tight as it needs to be. There are problems with Metacritic's methodology, but in any event, I'm pretty sure Some Hearts would have a lower Metacritic score than did Play On. It goes to show that critical consensus can really be driven by circumstantial factors (in the case of Some Hearts, the fact that it was an album from an Idol contestant whose popularity was undisputed, but who was never the media's favorite for the win; in the case of Carnival Ride, possibly a desire to be more open-minded in light of the previous album's success, etc.). Jon Caramanica actually had an interesting article in the NYT a few days ago about the critical groundswell behind Kanye's current album, how it came about, and what it really means. I think the points he makes apply more generally. In a nutshell:Not to say that critics and reviews are useless. I think there are often valid and smart observations about the music in reviews, it's just that the balance between the positive and negative observations is often influenced as much by buzz as it is by the actual music. And to bring this back full circle, I do agree that single choices can turn the buzz on an album, for better (as was the case with Some Hearts) or for worse. The Lori McKenna reference from Music Row comes press materials/her bio, which reads:Keith recorded "The Luxury of Knowing" for the Target deluxe version of Get Closer, but since Tim McGraw included a McKenna co-write on 2007's Let It Go, I can't rule out the possibility that this means Carrie has recorded a McKenna-penned song that hasn't made either Carnival Ride or Play On. Not that we're voting (and not that it would have much impact if we were), but Lori McKenna creates the kind of material I would be interested to hear Carrie sing, while Max Martin/Shellback do not. McKenna writes lyrics that require emotional and interpretive depth, and her melodies leave space for individual phrasing to leave its mark. By contrast, Martin/Shellback's lyrics and melodies are ill-suited to someone who is naturally inclined toward country's signature stylized phrasing, because they favor the clipped, more generic phrasing, intentional superficiality and tone of ironic detachment that is signature to pop. This is why, despite both songs having a sort of '90s breezy country pop feel, Carrie sounds a good deal more comfortable on "This Time" than "Quitter." I think Carrie learned some of the right lessons from the feedback to Carnival Ride (particularly when it came to production choices and vocal variety) and some of the wrong ones (for example, feeling the obligation to reveal more of herself). It will be interesting to see what she has learned from Play On. I will say this, though. It always felt to me like Some Hearts was in some ways easier to put together because it was at such an obviously transitional moment in Carrie's life -- leaving home for the first time, going off on her own, embarking on new things -- I would think that it was much easier to find a core of songs and stories that fit without necessarily being a complete reflection of Carrie's life. It seems to me that these early days after getting married might provide the kind of transitional moment that might be easier to organize a core of songs and stories around, again without being a direct and exhaustive reflection of Carrie's life (I think that she was hesitant to publicly embrace the prospect of transition when she was making Play On). Maybe. Hope springs eternal.
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Post by countrygirl918 on Jan 5, 2011 23:50:23 GMT -5
(I think that she was hesitant to publicly embrace the prospect of transition when she was making Play On). I definitely agree, especially due to this video. She's become much more comfortable talking about Mike since their engagement, but prior to that (during the making of PO and most of the promotion for it), she was very hesitant to acknowledge the potential transition she was in the beginning of. At this point, I think it's very clear that Mama's Song is about Mike (and the picture of the happy couple that always showed up on the screens at the end of the song on the Play On tour further proved that), but in that video she was very hesitant to admit that. I hadn't thought about it the way you described, but it makes perfect sense. I think Carrie will have an easier time finding a theme for the next album than she did for either Carnival Ride or Play On, because she's at that transitional point in her life, going from being a single, independent woman, to a newlywed. I'm suddenly very optimistic about album #4.
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Mike
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Post by Mike on Jan 6, 2011 1:35:47 GMT -5
Just listened to "Someday When I Stop Loving You" for the first time in ages... How in the world was that not the single over "Mama's Song"? God. That could have been a career-defining single for her. I can't believe I never listened to it more when the album came out!
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jptexas
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Post by jptexas on Jan 6, 2011 16:13:40 GMT -5
^^I agree about MS being released over SWISLY. That tells me how much that song meant to Carrie. IMO, she knew MS would not be received as highly as SWISLY would. But, for some reason, her mom's concerns about her finding the right person overpowered the obvious. She could have satisfied her mom's concerns by MS just being in the cd, but she took it to the next level and released it as a single. The real reasons we'll never know.
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Post by justlurkingaround on Jan 6, 2011 18:07:22 GMT -5
^ I agree. I think Carrie felt a personal necessity to release MS - regardless of how it would perform. And it's doing well on the charts, which is icing on the cake for her.
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fischbone
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Post by fischbone on Jan 6, 2011 19:32:26 GMT -5
I think there is still hope for SWISLY to be released. I'm optimistic that it will be next. :)
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leilamaurizia
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Post by leilamaurizia on Jan 6, 2011 19:58:54 GMT -5
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freeman
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Post by freeman on Jan 6, 2011 20:02:42 GMT -5
^ Wow! I'm loving these new photos of Carrie! I wonder what this image is for....
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cufan7
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Post by cufan7 on Jan 6, 2011 20:06:23 GMT -5
^ Wow! I'm loving these new photos of Carrie! I wonder what this image is for.... That photo (part of it) was used in the Play On Tour book.
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