Some Hearts Live-Blog

Friday afternoon, brain's not chugging on all cylinders, so we'll go with something easy here. I'll unwrap the debut album from Carrie Underwood, this year's American Idol (for the 3 of you--and kletois--that didn't get the memo), and give it a listen:

1. Wasted Am 2:09 into this song when I decide to start live-blogging this. Music is pretty much standard country, but her vocals are typically strong. This is why she won. Good start out of the gate.
2. Don't Forget to Remember Me..."It was a'ight." Nice song, doubt I'll be adding it to any play-lists. Very sentimental, very Martina/Faith-esque. (shock!) Okay, I'm cheating a bit here, on the 2nd listen before I posted. The song's better than I thought initially
3. Some Hearts Dang! Take that, Clarkson. Poppy, yet true to her country roots. Randy opines, "That was the bomb!" Paula claps and weeps, "I'm proud of you, you really made this song your own. You were having fun there in the studio, and you can really feel that"
   
4. Jesus, Take the Wheel um...have heard a lot about this, never heard it yet. Weakest so far. But not bad. Just trite. I'm not gonna touch the theology. Probably sounder than 70% of the stuff on CCM charts at the moment, anyway.
5. The Night Before yawn. Pretty, but boring. Will sell very well, video will be huge on CMT.
6. Lessons Learnedeh. better than The Night Before, 'bout sums it up.
7. Before He Cheats sort of a new-school country feel to the song, but you don't get more old-school than a song 'bout yer man cheatin'. Fun song. Good vocals.
8. Starts with Goodbye Different feel than the other ballads, less countryish. Pretty good. Still Martina/Faith-esque, but, um, that's pretty much Carrie Underwood, right?
9. I Just Can't Live a Lie I really wish there was something stand-out enough here to say...the vocals are really good. The lyrics and music are well...pretty standard. Again, this'll be a big hit, no doubt, but not one I'd go out of my way to hear.
10. We're Young and Beautiful Nothing profound here, but fun song.
11. That's Where It Is See track 4.
12. Whenever you Remember This could've been the song that the Idol producers used for the finale. Probably would've liked it better, actually.
13. I ain't in Checotah Anymore Carrie actually co-wrote this one, so one would think you hear a bit more of her in this, y'know. Nice "little-town-girl-makes-it-big" song. Almost an anti-"Baby Girl." Which isn't really right, but it's close enough for this.
14. Inside Your Heaven ugh. I guess they had to put this on.

And that's it. CD's over.

Probably doesn't sound like it, but I enjoyed the album. Pretty good stuff. Sure, I was less than impressed with the ballads, but there are precious few country ballads I really care for. "Whiskey Lullaby" is the only one I can think of from this year that does anything for me, so it's no slight to Carrie that I didn't care for what her songwriters brought her. She did well with them. This is much better than Fantasia did with her big shot (and Fantasia's a better singer). That's pretty much a back-handed compliment, not intended to be.

(celebrity voices impersonated...poorly)