Today Idol headlines after the jump ¦
Critics Choice
Carrie Underwood
On her new album, …Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood has done something clever: She resisted the urge to de-Carrie Underwood herself. This CD isnt full of rootsy, old-fashioned songs straining for NPR credibility. It not a mad dash into the dance-pop mainstream. It not an unvarnished collection of ostentatiously personal confessions.
Instead it a straight-up Carrie Underwood album, and a very good one, with a handful of romps and laments that exist mainly to set the stage for the big-voiced, 80s-influenced, Southern-accented power ballads she sings so well. Much more than any of her fellow …American Idol winners (and more than the losers too) she has become a mainstream pop star without much departing from that show musical formula. When she rears back and lets the high notes fly, she still sounds as if she were out to impress the judges……………..
‹Next Great American Band is no ‹Idol
Not only do judges rip into performances, they break up bands, friendships
Contrary to all expectations, “The Next Great American Band” is nothing like it parent, “American Idol.”
The obligatory foreign judge speaks with an Australian accent, not an English one. Sheila E. is not another Paula Abdul ‘ in her own words, she’s “the sensitive, nurturing, but I’m-not-gonna-take-no-mess judge.” And host Dominic Bowden isn’t Ryan Seacrest ‘ he’s just New Zealand’s version of the ever-present American entertainer, as he said in the show’s introduction. Yes, it really is that dramatically differenent…….
Hot Box, TV to talk about
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Country Time: Maureen McCormick of the old Brady Bunch series is one of a number of lesser lights signed for a new CMT series designed to create a new country star. Called Gone Country, this latest reality series will include John Rich, Bobby Brown, Carnie Wilson, Dee Snider, American Idol finalist Diana DeGarmo and Julio Iglesias Jr. Celebrities will live together in a Nashville mansion while they try adding that twang to their voices. The series premieres early next year.
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Events for Monday in New York
….Celebrate the Young People’s Chorus at the “10th Anniversary Benefit Concert” at Carnegie Hall. About 1, 000 kids ranging from ages 8 to 18 perform with singers Rosanne Cash, American Idol finalist Phil Stacey and “Jersey Boys” Christian Hoff and other in an evening of beautiful music. 7 p.m.; $20-$150. Purchase tickets at www.carnegiehall.org…
Still a pretty package, with predictable heart
Carrie Underwood is a pretty girl with a pretty voice, singing pretty songs about, presumably, pretty people. And that makes the whole package – including her new album “Carnival Ride” (Arista), like the multi-platinum, award-winning smash before it “Some Hearts” – all kinda nice, if predictable.
Unlike her fellow “American Idol” winners, Underwood feels no need to break away from the hit-making fold. In fact, she embraces it.
That means “Carnival Ride” goes down extraordinarily easy – lots of lush, inspirational ballads that make the most of her gorgeous voice and a handful of rock-tinged up-tempo numbers about getting out of town or following your dreams, where she channels the Dixie Chicks, without all that, you know, messy political stuff…….
……It’s hard to be this blank a slate for this long a time, but Underwood clearly works at it. She’s trying to be a singer, not a personality – kind of refreshing, in a time when private lives so often triumph over public work. But as nice as “Carnival Ride” has turned out, Underwood will simply be going around in circles until she invests a little more of herself into the process.