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Carrie Underwood’s Some Hearts, hastily made and released some five months after she won the 2005 American Idol crown, was surprisingly solid and tuneful. For her follow-up, producer Mark Bright steers her toward the big Martina McBride skies, with a plethora of strings and huge emotional crescendos. Underwood co-wrote four songs, mostly with the tried-and-true tunesmiths who made Some Hearts soar. On the torchy heartache ballad "I Know You Won’t," she gives a beautifully nuanced and controlled performance, but if that song would suit any number of lush female pop stars from Celine Dion on down, "Flat on the Floor" rocks hard while preserving co-writer Ashley Monroe’s Appalachian angst. Still, there are missteps: the easy tears of the unlikely war ballad "Just a Dream," a too-obvious attempt to repeat the sass of "Before He Cheats" ("The More Boys I Meet"), and the Shania-ish bad-girl-on-Cuervo stomp of "Last Name." The big payoff, then, is how much 24-year old Underwood has improved as a vocalist. How often listeners line up for this Carnival Ride depends on their attitude about country music’s continual melding with pop, and how they feel about a princess upstart taking home the awards that used to go to her heroes. --Alanna Nash

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Some Hearts

American Idol Season 4 - The Showstoppers

Customer Rating:
Summary: Just a dream and Last name are GREAT!
Comment: Everything else is just very Carrie Boringwood and stiff as usual...I'll admit she has a nice voice and all but she isn't as great as people say she is. There are wayyyyyyyy better artists/singers then Carrie. She is just good eye candy if you ask me.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great album
Comment: For most artists, putting out their sophomore album is one of the most trying times in their career. Many artists second albums pale in comparison to their first, both artistically and in sales figures. Carrie Underwood's second project, Carnival Ride, breaks through the stereotypes and is poised to eventually sell more and become more respected than the previous album, Some Hearts. Vocally, Carrie has become more talented on this record, if that is even possible. All of the songs on the album were hand selected, with Carrie even co-writing a few, and it is obvious that much thought was given to the tracks on the album. This is a stand out and one of my favorites in mainstream country music today!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: beautiful
Comment: this is a great country album. i don't like country and have a hard time listening to it, but lately i have been doing my best to dive into the genre of country music and give it an objective listen. this is a fantastic album for everyone; especially first time listeners of country.

and SHOUTING and bad tone? i have listened to this album in full tonight about 2 times and there is no shouting and she is perfectly in tune with her songs. i listen to a LOT of music, i was once a dj. there is no shouting.

anyway, i guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion. carrie is truly a phenomenon. i just love her. if you like carrie, you will probably like taylor swift as well.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Worthy successor
Comment: After the first listen, Flat on the floor, Just a dream and Last name were the standouts. But just like the first CD there are 7 good to great songs as All american girl, So small, Twisted and Get out of this town are pretty damn good country/pop songs. Just a dream is a haunting, haunting song that became even more so after seeing the video, powerful is an understatement. I thought Some Hearts was a solid A- CD and so is this one a solid A-. Would love her to do a bluesy country type album as she has the chops for it and for anyone to suggest she is overrated and is only where she is because of her looks, is laughable. Girl has some "skillz" and can out sing any singer in this weeks top ten which is loaded with non-singers who talk and don't really sing or make any sense.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: great cd
Comment: carrie underwood is so beautiful an she sings like an angel this is an excellent cd. i really like the more boys i meet song and just about all the others too. i would like to see her and the singer from evanesence do a crossroads on cmt it would rock my world. booya

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