lay On doesn't live up to star's standards

By JOEY GUERRA

Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood's path to superstardom has been cut down the middle with savvy, razor-sharp precision. She's a good girl who occasionally goes bad, a Barbie doll with sporadic Bratz tendencies.


Previous albums have balanced pristine ballads (Jesus, Take the Wheel; So Small; Just a Dream) with fiery rave-ups (Before He Cheats, Last Name). Those discs were far from perfect, but they managed to showcase some flickers of real personality.


Play On, online and in stores Tuesday, could (and should) have been an artistic turning point. Underwood is now a bona fide country queen, and the title allows her the liberty to take real chances. That's what ultimately makes this disc, her third, so disappointing.


She seems oddly detached from much of the material here — not dirty enough during the up tempos and not able to conjure the drama needed for the breakup songs. Yes, she sounds terrific. And to be fair, it's not like the material allows her much wiggle room. Everything stays safely in the narrow confines of country radio.


That's fine for a post-Idol newbie. But Underwood should not only be raising the bar, she should be setting it. Play On will likely sell millions of copies and spawn several hit singles. But it feels lazy and uninspired.


Underwood is most appealing when she isn't trying so hard to please everyone. First single Cowboy Casanova is the country-rocking-est anthem Mutt Lange never wrote for Shania Twain. Songs Like This is a twangy shot of girl-power that rouses the princess out of her gauzy slumber; and Quitter boasts a featherweight vocal delivery that works with the tune's springy arrangement.


What Can I Say gets some much-needed zip from newbie group Sons of Sylvia (the sibling trio who won Fox's Next Great American Band as the Clark Brothers). It's nice to hear Underwood's crystalline vocals against a male counterpart. And the title track equates Underwood's professional journey with a more generalized life statement.


But the rest of the disc — more than half — is filled with cheap sentimentality and power notes for the sake of powering. Just because you can sing long and loud doesn't mean you always have to.


Mama's Song is a sequel of sorts to superior earlier hit Don't Forget To Remember Me, with the country girl finding her farmer. Someday When I Stop Loving You has some understated charm but doesn't resonate with the needed pain or wistfulness.



Those aren't Play On's most groan-inducing moments. Change could've been recorded by many country singers, Underwood just got to the Hallmark store first.


“Whatcha gonna do with the 36 cents sticky with Coke on your floorboard? When a woman in the street is huddled in the cold ... .”


Temporary Home also comes with liberal doses of sap, weaving a tale that involves a foster child, a single mom and a dying man in a hospital bed.


Play On's final third is filled with interchangeable, generic love-isms. Maybe Underwood isn't interested in truly spreading her musical wings. And maybe fans don't care if she ever leaves her ice castle. But with so much vocal talent, Play On's underwhelming tunes put Underwood's potential on pause.

joey.guerra@chron.com