Grade: B
Carrie Underwood’s new album “Storyteller” isn’t just a new collection of music; rather, it’s a message to the world that the Carrie who won American Idol 10 years ago is all grown up now.
Releasing her latest album Oct. 23, the country star finds herself in a different stage of life at the age of 32 than she did at the release of her previous album “Blown Away” in 2012.
She is now a mother, as she gave birth to her first child in February 2015, and that is reflected in “Storyteller.”
However, the old Carrie still makes an appearance, don’t worry.
“All the Ajax in the world ain’t gonna clean your dirty laundry.”
Yep. Underwood made another cheating-boyfriend song for all the angry and betrayed country music fans looking for a song to scream when no one is around — or maybe when people are around, who knows?
“Dirty Laundry” is a near carbon copy of “Before He Cheats,” but she hangs the cheater’s evidence out on the clothesline instead of destroying his truck — I wonder how many names are in his lover seat by now.
Underwood also didn’t stray far from the idea of “Two Black Cadillacs,” as “Church Bells” tells of a woman who kills her husband after domestic abuse pushes her over the edge.
Hell hath no fury like a Carrie Underwood revenge song.
While the Oklahoma-native knows exactly how to seek revenge, she also knows how to touch the hearts of her listeners like no other active country singer.
In perhaps the most emotional track on the album, Underwood plays “The Girl You Think I Am” for her father after she became a parent as well. If I had a dime for every tear shed at the lyrics “You always see the best in me when I can’t / I want to be the girl you think I am,” I might just drop $3.2 million on 354 acres in Nashville, Tennessee. Oh, wait.
Even though Underwood is the only spawn of classic ‘90s power women like Martina McBride, Shania Twain and Reba McEntire, she takes her cowgirl boots into the field of pop in “Storyteller,” as “The clock don’t sto-ah-ah-op ticking away, ticking away” in 2015.
Aside from the relatable tracks “Smoke Break” and “Relapse,” Underwood shows the growth she has seen in the last three years through two love songs, “Heartbeat” and “Like I’ll Never Love You Again,” and a mother’s song, “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted.”
The love songs are clearly about her husband of five years, NHL player Mike Fisher, but the songs of infatuation show a personal side of Underwood that she hasn’t portrayed through her music until “Storyteller.”
For example, “I want to love you like I’ll never love you again” are not lyrics for a typical Carrie Underwood song, but she’s not the same Carrie Underwood that we are used to hearing.
She’s now a wife, a mother and a country legend, and we’re watching her grow up in front of our very eyes.
“Storyteller” ends with “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted,” a song dedicated to her husband and child, a perfect way to end the story of the singer’s transformation from a starry-eyed college senior to a mother entering womanhood.
“I never thought there was a hole, something missing in my soul, until you filled it up / You’re stealing every bit of my heart with your daddy’s eyes.”
