Carrie Underwood- Denim and Rhinestones
Label: Capitol
Producers: Carrie Underwood and David Garcia
After taking a graceful pair of detours in her catalog by indulging in her love for both gospel music and seasonal tunes, Carrie Underwood makes a total 180 on her ninth studio album, and first proper since 2018’s Cry Pretty, by turning her attention to another love of hers: unabashed MTV-era glam pop. Denim and Rhinestones is a distillation of the high-energy arena vibes of her acclaimed concert shows, and Underwood simply sounds like she’s having a flat-out blast throughout this record. Producing that kind of loose, intoxicating joy on record is not always an easy task for an artist deemed as a diva with powerhouse vocals, when it’s often expected that you follow the more proper, and consequently, wooden route. This track list is an endless onslaught of slick, glossy country-pop anthems, with the title track, “Crazy Angels”, “Velvet Heartbreak”, “Hate My Heart”, “Pink Champagne” all feeling like essential additions to her next arena tour. All of these moments sound intentionally crafted with a big stage production in mind. That’s not to say she doesn’t flesh out the album with peak moments in other realms. Lead single, “Ghost Story” is a dramatic tour-de-force cut from the same fabric of her most pivotal career ballads, the saucy “She Don’t Know” continues her storied catalog of Southern Gothic cheating songs, and the beautifully stripped “Garden” is one of the most tender vocal performances in a nearly two decade career stacked with them. D&R is easily Underwood’s most purely pop release to date and the sonic euphoria elicited here often-times reaches Come On Over and Up! standards, not to mention that of Whitney or She’s So Unusual. No, it may not reign as her artistic zenith or most critically acclaimed release, but I’ll be damned if it’s not one of her most thoroughly satisfying to the ears.
Track Listing:
- “Denim & Rhinestones” (Carrie Underwood, David Garcia, Hillary Lindsey, Josh Kear)
- “Velvet Heartbreak” (Underwood, Garcia, Lindsey)
- “Ghost Story” (Garcia, Lindsey, Kear)
- “Heat My Heart” (Underwood, Garcia, Lindsey, Michael Hardy)
- “Burn” (Underwood, Garcia, Lindsey, Ashley Gorley)
- “Crazy Angels” (Underwood, Garcia, Lydia Vaughan)
- “Faster” (Underwood, Garcia, Lindsey)
- “Pink Champagne” (Underwood, Garcia, Lindsey, Gorley)
- “Wanted Woman” (Underwood, Garcia, Josh Miller)
- “Poor Everybody Else” (Underwood, Miller, Chris DeStefano)
- “She Don’t Know” (Underwood, Garcia, Lindsey)
- “Garden” (Underwood, Garcia, Miller)
The 706 
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