Yep, I've got Carrie's album. I gladly bought that instead of the crap CDs Idol was pushing out last Christmas :)
It's an excellent album. Much more Country than "Some Hearts".
There's only one song that I don't like--"Just A Dream". It seems heavy-handed to me, even though it's a fairly good tune.
"All-American Girl" is a great song. I think it's the first single. "Last Name" is very good too.
Two things I hope Carrie has learned from Kelly Clarkson: (1) If you're gonna fight with the Man, do it behind the scenes, not in public. And (2) if you insist on doing your own music, for heaven's sake, don't just sit around writing dreary, self-indulgent psycho-babble tunes with members of your band while rejecting ANY help from the professional songwriters your label suggests help you polish your stuff.
Oh, and another thing. In show business, as in much of life, timing is everything. If you insist on putting out something with this dark cover art, and with depressing track titles such as Never Again, Hole, Sober, Judas, and Haunted...
...then for heaven's sake, have the common sense to put it out in late October or November, and not in June!
It isn't just about having a good voice. It isn't just about being an "artist." Quaint concept though it may be to some these days, it's about ENTERTAINMENT.