Home
Blown Away
Loading Inventory...
Barnes and Noble
Blown Away
Current price: $9.99
Barnes and Noble
Blown Away
Current price: $9.99
Loading Inventory...
Size: OS
*Product Information may vary - to confirm product availability, pricing, and additional information please contact Barnes and Noble
Prior to the release of her fourth album,
, in the spring of 2012,
claimed that she was getting back to having "real things to write about and real things to sing about" -- a sentiment that's all well and good but has precisely nothing to do with the brassy blowout of the finished product. Dispensing with any pretense that
remains a down-home country girl -- the kind who takes carnival rides and sticks a daisy in her hair --
is an unabashed glossy pop album, positioning
as the heir to
and
's country diva act, pushing the comparisons so far that she looks like a runway refugee on the album cover and she concludes the hourlong marathon with a song written by
's former husband,
. Naturally, this showstopping act suits a former American Idol winner but, better still, this exercise in turn-of-the-millennium nostalgia is executed with skill and savvy, offering the kind of larger-than-life power ballads and cheerful, clomping arena country that have fallen out of favor in the early days of the 2010s. Not that
and team -- led by producer
and also featuring songwriters
,
, and
-- are ignorant of the country and pop trends of 2012. They find room for light, sunny pop ("Do You Think About Me," "Nobody Ever Told You"), a bit of Caribbean breeze on "One Way Ticket," and a stomping chant-along hook on "Leave Love Alone," and they splice
together on the ludicrously fun "Cupid's Got a Shotgun," which is enough to make
not seem like a throwback even if its heart belongs to the days of diamond-certified albums. Sure, that diva worship makes it seem ever so slightly old-fashioned, yet this is
's wheelhouse -- she's meant to sing these oversized ballads and hooks, she's meant to look as unattainable as she does on the cover. She's meant to be be a superstar and she's never seemed as comfortable with her calling as she does on
. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine