Album A Day: Carrie Underwood – Some Hearts

Artist: Carrie Underwood
Album: Some Hearts
Release Date: November 15, 2005

Fact: Some Hearts is the best-selling American Idol album to date (unless Kelly Clarkson’s new album topped it). Listening to it for the first time now, I’m not the least bit surprised. Idol debut albums have had a tendency to be hit-or-miss, but Carrie Underwood’s first album is significantly more hit than anything else. Country music tends to get a bad reputation for being overly preachy and pandering to a certain section of the country, but Some Hearts is the rare country album that focuses on music first, and lets the message come through after that. The most preachy Underwood gets is in her first post-Idol single “Jesus, Take the Wheel”, which even steers clear of shoving Bibles down your throat in favor of telling a story. In fact, telling a story is something Underwood does wonderfully through song, as “The Night Before” tugs the heartstrings and “Before He Cheats” has a rare country swagger. Even the filler songs on the album are at worst tolerable, and occasionally (“We’re Young and Beautiful”) on par with the singles.

When Underwood had her Idol-assisted ascent to stardom, I was still scoffing at reality television, American Idol included. Moments like this make me understand why it is a show like that has succeeded for eight years now. Here’s hoping another Carrie Underwood is on tap in the near future (somehow I doubt it’s Kris Allen).

Carrie Underwood – Before He Cheats [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==