Carrie Underwood’s upcoming Cry Pretty album was a long labor of love for the singer. Her last record, Storyteller, was released in 2015, almost exactly three years before the release of the new record. Since that time, Underwood went from having an infant to a toddler with her son, Isaiah (now three), grew as an artist and a songwriter, and launched her fitness clothing line, CALIA. She also suffered a broken wrist and facial injuries in a fall late last year, forcing her to fight back, emotionally and physically, in a way she hadn’t yet experienced..
The result is Cry Pretty, 12 songs (plus a bonus track, “Champion”) that are authentically and completely Underwood.
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“There’s a lot of really personal songs on this album,” Underwood shared with PopCulture.com and other media. “2017 was just, it was a year full of ups and downs for a lot of reasons, and a lot of reasons I’m not quite ready to talk about. But, I feel like it made its way. Life, when you’re writing, kind of makes its way into what you’re doing. I feel like this was the first or the most that I could really inject myself into what I was writing.
“I’ve always been good at writing stories about other people, and not so great writing about myself,” she adds. “I felt like through all the ups and down of last year and the beginning of this year, I had to. That’s just what was on my mind and on my heart.”
Although portions of the last few years were challenging, and even painful for Underwood, she insists she wouldn’t change a thing.
“I feel like life needs ups and downs, as much as we’d all like to avoid downs,” Underwood explains. “We wouldn’t know what the ups felt like if we didn’t have them. I just feel like I was just made to deal with a lot of things that I’m just not good at dealing with stuff. I’m good at working, I’m good at kind of shoving things to the side. ‘I’ve got stuff to do, so let’s do these tasks at hand.’ This past little while has just been really good at making me deal with my own emotions.”
Underwood might have sold millions of albums, had multiple runs at the top of the charts, and sold out arenas, but the 35-year-old concedes that she feels vulnerable leading up to the release of Cry Pretty.
“It’s been good for me, but it’s also been scary, because if you inject yourself into your art, and then you put your art out into the world and people don’t like it, or judge it, or whatever, it’s like they’re kind of judging you, or they don’t like you,” Underwood admits. “I really hope, for better or for worse, people just get it. I think we can turn situations into positive things. Whatever might be going on in your life, I feel like you can use it. For me, it was making music, and kind of good therapy. You can turn some bad stuff into at least some good things.”
Cry Pretty will be available on September 14. Pre-order the album at CarrieUnderwoodOffficial.com.
Photo Credit: Getty images/Myrna M. Suarez
