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’