Review of ‘Cry Pretty’ by Carrie Underwood

I feel like I should like Carrie Underwood’s music more than I do. After all, she’s a strong woman in mainstream country, and I do respect her for that, even though the quality of her singles recently has been all over the map. Even though I do tend to like more Carrie Underwood tracks than I dislike, her overly polished pop production can feel a bit predictable, as well as her lack of ability when it comes to subtlety. But how is Underwood’s new album, ‘Cry Pretty’.

Well, it’s passable certainly, but it’s also a total mess. ‘Cry Pretty’ by Carrie Underwood is one of the most spectacular pile-up’s of pop tones and textures I’ve heard. And yes, this is a pop album with country elements shoved into the background so country radio has an excuse to play the singles. And, on that note, let’s start by discussing the production. I can see a lot of people making the Sam Hunt comparison, and, honestly, as much I can kind of hear it in a lot of the choppy, overly stiff production, I personally think that comparison is a tad harsh, mainly because Underwood’s boundless, infectious does a lot to sell ‘Southbound’, ‘Love Wins’ and ‘Kingdom’; all three of those songs are better than anything I’ve heard from Sam Hunt recently. That doesn't mean to say that the production is consistent, as it really is anything but. The main issue with a lot of these songs is that the melodies are often far too choppy to be all that memorable. Take the overly synthetic production on ‘That Song That We Used To Make Love To’, or the rickety feel that the hooks on ‘Drinking Alone’ and ‘Low’ being clear offenders.

I would argue that the less cluttered the mixes are, the better the songs turn out. These tend to be the songs that give Underwood the greatest opportunity to show off her huge vocal range. ‘Spinning Bottles’, ‘Love Wins’ and ‘Kingdom’ may not be great songs thanks to the overly polished feel they all have, but they are a much better fit for Underwood’s vocals than a lot of the clumsily mixed overstuffed songs we get here.

But what I’m more interested in when it comes to this kind of pop country is the lyrics, and, despite getting a few interesting relationship songs, a lot of whar you’re getting with this album you’ve probably heard before. I liked ‘Drinking Alone’ a lot more when it was called ‘Alone Together’ by Dan + Shay, and ‘Love Wins’ and ‘Kingdom’ are pretty conventional and unspectacular in how they’re written, despite kind of liking both songs on account of them both being infectiously catchy.

The biggest shock for me on this album was the song ‘Southbound’: a bro country song. Not even a clever subversion of the clichés associated with the sub-genre. What surprised me even more was how much it worked. Seriously, in amongst all the relationship drama having a straightforward party track is actually kind of refreshing.

Speaking of that drama, ‘The Bullet’ is one of the more striking songs on the album for its lyrics about gun violence and how families of the victims of gun violence can be strongly affected. ‘Spinning Bottles’ might be even heavier. On this track Underwood presents a story about an alcoholic husband who’s been away for three days in painstaking, eye-watering detail. A real album standout.

But however much these great moments do haul this album out of mediocrity, they can’t do any more than that. A decent album with a few great songs, but some catchy hooks and thematically rich moments can only redeem inconsistent production so much.

3 /5

Best Songs: ‘Spinning Bottles’, ‘The Bullet’, ‘Southbound’, ‘Love Wins’

Worst Songs: ‘That Song That We Used To Make Love To’

Review of ‘sweetener’ by Ariana Grande

I had some hopes this album might be good after lead single ‘no tears left to cry’ grew on me, but, unfortunately, I don’t quite think the album quite lived up to the promise of that track. What we got was a serviceable, but oddly dour album. The lack of vibrant instrumentation is a bit of a dealbreaker across this album. You would have thought that ‘R.E.M’, ‘successful’ and ‘better off’ could have done with more colouful production that would really flatter Grande’s huge vocal range.

But that doesn't mean to say that there aren’t moments where Grande gets to flex her tremendous range, the bridge on ‘goodnight n go’ being the standout, but considering that when placed over more dynamic production like on ‘no tears left to cry’ or ‘breathin’, Grande can sell these songs very well. I might not love either ‘the light is coming’ or ‘blazed’ all that much, but at least Pharrell Williams gave these songs some unique flare and personality which I can’t say an awful lot of the songs on this album have.

But, that being said, Grande said herself that this project was more ‘a bunch of songs that I really really like’ than a typical album, which could explain a lot of the scattershot production choices, but no where does this come through than the songwriting. Sure, there are simply framed love / crush songs like ‘sweetener’, ‘borderline’, ‘God is a women’, and ‘goodnight n go’ but there are more complex songs. On ‘everytime’ Grande is constantly being brought back to the guy she’d thought she said goodbye to for good, but ‘breathin’ might just be the most potent of the bunch as she sets her sights on the future and vows to keep her head high even in the tragedy she found herself in May 2017.

And, on that note, there are other songs that are clearly inspired by those tragic events, but ‘no tears left to cry’, ‘the light is coming’ and ‘get well soon’ all, like ‘breathin’ are more focused on looking forward rather than being stuck in the past, and there is certainly something to seeing such a young pop star deal with that whole situation as maturely as Grande does.

But overall, this is an album that undoubtedly should be better than it is. A decent, but heavily compromised pop album.

3 / 5

Best Songs: ‘breathin’, ‘no tears left to cry’, ‘goodbye n go’, ‘everytime’

Worst Songs: ‘better off’, ‘successful’

Review of: ‘Villains’ by Emma Blackery

Sometimes it’s difficult to appreciate the lengths that artists go to in order to make their album, case in point, pop singer and songwriter Emma Blackery. Initially inspired by YouTube comedy stars, Blackery has been gradually electing to push that aside in favour of pursuing a career as a songwriter and singer, and a whole lot of work and a few EPs later, the debut independently released studio album ‘Villains’ was born and is now available.

However much I was looking forward to this album, my expectations were not sky high. The lead single ‘Dirt’ divided fans, and while ‘Agenda’ was a measurable step forward, it was clear that a lot of people were unsure if the hero they knew and loved for her comedy beginnings on YouTube would be able to pull through on a full length album. So, did Emma Blackery and her collaborating producers make something worthwhile on ‘Villains’?

I'll say this, this album tested me. It's a total mess and one that borrows from every corner of pop music and a total nightmare in terms of instrumental cohesion. But despite the pileup of pop tones and textures that make up this album, it would be wrong to call this album outright bad, mainly because there is at least something of a thematic core to it that we will discuss in detail later.

But first, the production, and, as I mentioned earlier, it's all over the place. Between the theatrical and kind of overblown crush of the chorus on 'Villains Pt. 1', the more conventional and accessible production with the sweeping synths on 'Dirt' and 'Agenda', to the swampier production style on 'Take Me Out' and 'Third Eye', I can definitely say that Emma Blackery and her collaborators did not make a boring pop album. That doesn't mean to say I like all of it, though. I've already discussed how 'Villains Pt. 1' feels incredibly overblown, but you could easily place 'Burn The Witch' into the same category. On the other end of the scale you have a song like 'Petty' where the guitar groove might be welcome, but by the hook it's been swallowed by wonky sounding synth fragments that clash horribly with the main melody. 'Take Me Out' is another example. The buildup might be pleasant, but by the hook the melody is heavily compromised by grading rickety percussion that does not need to be there.

It might sound like I'm being overly harsh on a debut album that clearly did not have a significant budget, but there was potential even with all this in mind. 'Third Eye' and 'Burn The Witch' are far from a great songs, but the galloping hooks are pretty infectious. 'Icarus' is another one I can see myself coming back to with the restraint central melody proving remarkably sticky. Similar case with the more jittery production that grew on me a lot on 'Fake Friends', but the best song on this album is by far 'What I Felt With You' where the mix is emptied of all the chaos giving Blackery the room on the mix to properly emote.

But a lot of that song's power comes from where it's placed on the album, and so let's discuss the thematic arc on this album. In short, it's about the villains in Blackery's life, particularly a nameless ex who somehow did her wrong (even though the most evil thing we see him do is call Blackery out for some reason on social media after the break up on 'Dirt'). From there the album sees Blackery trying to hide her emotions on 'Fake Friends', reflecting on what she could have done better on 'Icarus', coming to terms with any lingering feelings on ‘What I Felt With You’, before letting her resent for this guy take her over on ‘Burn The Witch’. While this may seem rather unspectacular on the surface, I will give Blackery a lot of credit for her self aware framing. Take a song like ‘Icarus’ with lines like ‘You know the higher you fly the less you can hide’ in reference to how she’s aware of her own egotistical tendencies, it makes the obnoxious kiss off tracks like ‘Dirt’, ‘Petty’ and to a lesser extent ‘Agenda’ at least feel vaguely self aware. Part of the reason why Blackery singing about self doubt (‘But what can I do when I've got nothing else / Not even myself) actually have a fair bit of weight to it, she knows her flaws.

That doesn't mean to say that there are not moments that just make me role my eyes. Take the nursery rhyme cadence on ‘Agenda’ where she spells out the titular word, and on ‘Burn The Witch’ where on the bridge Blackery sings ‘Roses are red, violets are blue / Lady Karma’s a bitch and she’s coming for you’. Furthermore, on ‘Petty’ you get lines like ‘You used to call me petty ‘till you took out the R’, and even on the standout ‘What I Felt With You’ you get the line ‘I hate the colour blue ‘cause that’s what I felt with you’. In these cases this kind of songwriting can work, but for an album trying to be as over the top and theatrical as this you wouldn’t think this cutesy writing style would be a good idea.

But overall, this album is a mess, but the mingled, vaguely self aware framing did a lot for me. I’m not sure it quite enough to hoist the album above just about passable, but I get the feeling that Blackery won’t get the credit she deserves in terms of the subtlety of some of her songwriting, and that’s the real tragedy.

3 / 5

Best Songs: ‘What I Felt With You’, ‘Icarus’, ‘Agenda’, ‘Villains Pt. 1’

Worst Songs: ‘Petty’