Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride

Today, MSN Canada posted a full sneak peek of Carrie's new album, Carnival Ride which will hit the stores on Oct. 23. I have listened to the whole album once and have some initial thoughts. First, it's a good album but I don't think it's as good as Some Hearts. When I first heard Some Hearts I didn't think it was a very good album and was a little disappointed in it. However, after listening to a couple of times I grew to love it and it's one of my favorite Idol albums yet. I feel like Carnival Ride is trying to be a little more "serious" and the songs don't have the same fun feel to them that some of the songs on Some Hearts did.

The other big thing that I noticed about it is that they are really trying to show off Carrie's voice. We all know that she has a powerful voice but it seems like every song has a power note in it that she's always going for. After a while it gets really old and begins to sound as if she's yelling through every song (I Know You Won't is the worst offender of this. I almost just skipped the song because I got tired of the high note over and over again).

With that being said, I did hear about 4 songs that will probably make radio play and I am sure that those songs will only give Carrie many more awards in the next year or two. I am sure that this will be another huge album for her. Grade on the initial listen: B-. I am sure that will change after I've listened to it a couple of times.

To hear the album go to MSN Canada.

Revisionist Idol - Season 4

via Idol Chatter

Clearly, fans of the winners don't have nearly the same fierceness of motivation as the "wronged" fans. The winner already, well, won, so there's not a huge need to mobilize to make sure it happens again in a re-vote such as this.

1. Bo Bice (actual finish, 2nd): Shocking, considering post-idol success.

2. Carrie Underwood (actual finish, 1st): It was actually a close race. The margin of difference amounted to a little more than 2 1/2 percent of the total points earned by Bo and Carrie. I think it was that Bo's fans cared more than Carrie's -- I've got to think in sheer numbers, Carrie's got more fans -- certainly the kind that buy records (although I wouldn't blame any Bo fans for boycotting his debut album, which I agree with most of you was not representative of his talents).

3. Constantine Maroulis (6th)

4. Nadia Turner (8th): Like Tamyra and La Toya before her, people thought she was a superior singer who might have lost personality points to other, inferior finalists.

5. Vonzell Solomon (3rd): Vonzell just didn't seem to inspire a whole lot of reminiscent passion. We might be forgetting how much she improved over the course of the show; finishing third, she was a sleeper, but a much more talented one than, say, Jasmine.

6. Anthony Fedorov (4th): Fans complimented his voice, heart-tugging back story and nice-guy personality, but the combined Constantine and Nadia movement kept him from matching his actual rank.
7. Jessica Sierra (10th): She has a lot of fans she may not know about; many rated her above Carrie (rather questionable), but the enthusiasm for her vocal stylings was stronger than expected.
8. Anwar Robinson (7th)
9. Nikko Smith (9th)
10. Lindsey Cardinale (12th): Voters in this poll don't seem to think Idol gets it right in the early eliminations. For a last-placer, Lindsey drew a surprising amount of support, praising her versatile vocals.
11. Scott Savol (5th): And the award for the biggest divergence from his actual finish goes to the smooth, soulful singer with the weird personality. His legal run-ins have done him no favors in the memories of Idol fans, apparently, as he was mentioned on very few ballots.
12. Mikalah Gordon (11th): Whew. Any other result and I would have strongly questioned your collective sanity. The novelty contestant of Season 4 is listed in the thesaurus as a synonym for "abrasive."