Hey y'all! I'm Sam Lansky, and you're reading "Pop Think," my column where I think about pop music. (Crazy, right?) Sometimes, though, I think about other music, like dance-pop, or pop-rock, or even country-pop -- which is where my head is at this week, as I've been utterly obsessed with the new Carrie Underwood album, Blown Away, which infuses the Oklahoma sweetheart's traditional country twang with a fierce pop sensibility, a dark and simmering anger and an emotional complexity and depth that's rare and exhilarating.

As a pop enthusiast, my diversions into the world of country are few and far between -- I've always been a megafan of Taylor Swift, with occasional flirtations with Miranda Lambert and the Dixie Chicks -- but Carrie's album has got me all fired up. The blonde bombshell is saying goodbye to her "Good Girl" roots (see what I did there?) and going to a place that's far more compelling than "Jesus, Take the Wheel" ever suggested she might go.

If you haven't yet experienced the genius of Blown Away, it's time to throw on your Wranglers and cowboy hat, pile into the pickup truck, and go for a long drive in the Oklahoma fields. There's a Carrie Underwood storm a-brewing -- and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it blew us all away.

Nobody could have expected a song as dark, sinister and patently weird as the title track on Carrie Underwood's Blown Away from the charming, guileless girl from the heartland who rocketed to celebrity after winning the fourth season of "American Idol." Even at her edgiest, on a song like "Before He Cheats," there was a sweetness to her antics; Carrie was always the virtuous counterpart to the bleach-blonde tramp who drinks those fruity little drinks, and nobody would ever blame her for taking the Louisville slugger to his headlights. (I certainly didn't.) The narrative there was clear: A nice girl gets cheated on by a loser guy, and the nice girl gets the last laugh with some good old-fashioned revenge.

And more than any other genre of music, country is all about narrative, as the greatest lyricists in country history have always proven. Even the predictable cliches in a country song (references to pick-up trucks and American flags) work because they help to illuminate a great story, one that's emotionally driven and accessible to many listeners.

Read more about Carrie Underwood's Blown Away after the jump.

Read More...

Related Content Why Taylor Swift's Next Album Is Going To Be Unbelievably Good, Taylor Swift's Swag Game: Why She's The Crunkest Chick In Country, Follow Buzzworthy On Twitter

Tags Carrie Underwood, Pop Think