'Storyteller' by Carrie Underwood Album Review

by Aprille Hanson
Carrie Underwood’s fifth studio album Storyteller lives up to its title more than most albums actually played on country radio. It’s hardly the contemplative album that will go down in music history, but it’s one that goes back to her Southern roots.

The 13-track album is both classic and new. Underwood is not a pop diva, but she’s not wandering the backwoods with a shotgun either. She’s a mix of country royalty meets small-town girl, something only she has really been able to pull off of late with recent success. It’s that same persona Reba embodies, which gives Underwood the freedom to experiment with new sounds or go back to some more traditional pieces without alienating her audience.

Her first single out of the gate “Smoke Break,” which she co-wrote, is one of the purest country songs she’s ever done. It easily could have been released by someone like Miranda Lambert or Ashley Monroe, whose music tends to be a little more edgy and traditional. But Underwood sells it. She taps into this hardworking mentality of Southern people without going straight into dirt road clichés. It’s extremely relatable, with everyone at one point or another needing to find time for whatever vice they have, their own “smoke break” to escape the stresses of life. It’s a song that could have been released on ’90s country radio and been a hit.

For as country as “Smoke Break” sounds, it doesn’t have the deep twang factor of “Choctaw County Affair.” It’s likely one of the most unique songs Underwood has ever released, taking on the persona of a tough Southern girl in Mississippi who is on trial with her lover for the murder of the self-righteous Cassie O’Grady.

In October, she told 95.7 Duke FM in Tennessee that the album took its shape after she found that song, saying “There was just something so, like it was simple but it was like swampy and twangy and it was a story and there was just something laid back and cool about it.”

Anyone who has heard her more pop-infused, soulful songs like the brilliant “Something in the Water” and wondered how she fits in country music will remember why on this song. Her singing the line “And now they say she’s lying dead somewhere” with a long, clear twang is a mic drop moment.

There are several signature Underwood stylings on the album including “Dirty Laundry,” “Like I’ll Never Love You Again” and “Chaser.” “Renegade Runaway” is probably the closest to others in her repertoire -- it’s essentially the female-warning version of “Cowboy Casanova.”

“Mexico,” again done in a Lambert-style, is pure fun about committing a crime and escaping to Mexico to dodge the police. It’s one of those songs that Underwood can let her powerhouse vocals run wild on, which is always a treat for her fans.

Her second single “Heartbeat” was predictably for radio. It’s a sweet song and the clichés of a harvest moon, driving out into the country and being in her “bare feet” with her man, are not too overdone like so many on the radio.

“Relapse” has the right amount of crescendos to build the tension, comparing a past relationship and the mistake of going back to it to a drug or alcohol addiction relapse.

“Clock Don’t Stop” is probably the most pop sounding track on the album -- which will undoubtedly be a single -- along with “Church Bells.” ‘Bells’ is essentially “Two Black Cadillacs” meets Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead.” It’s a good, but very predictable song that’s trying to be more profound than it is. This cheese-fest of a line doesn’t help either: “Everyone thought they were Ken and Barbie / but Ken was always gettin’ way too drunk.”

Two songs, which she co-wrote, stand out as purely classic Underwood: “The Girl You Think I Am,” an ode to her father and the sweet “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted” about her marriage and new baby Isaiah. It hearkens back to her first album Some Hearts, giving listeners a glimpse into how she feels about her life and those she loves.

Storyteller is really a defining moment in her collection. Underwood is at a new stage in her life as a wife and mom and the growth is evident on this album. She’s truly her own story in country music that’s far from over.

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