Music Review: Carrie Underwood "Blown Away"

Carrie Underwood

Blown Away

Album: Blown Away

Year: 2012

        A young woman finds a way out in the cathartic “Blown Away.”

         Fearful strings start the single, setting an anxious tone. Earlier in the day, she had been watching the television and the weatherman broke in to report that a tornado was coming. With the first flash of lightning, she starts gathering the necessary things she will need while keeping it a secret from her father. Dry lightning cracks across the skies/those storm clouds gather in her eyes”)

       His hurtful words: you’re worthless, you don’t know how to do anything, you made me break that bottle, ring in her ears and she knows she has to do something. It killed her mother, who tried her best to protect her daughter. She needs to get out.(“Her daddy was a mean old mister/Mama was an angel in the ground/the weather man called for a twister/She prayed blow it down”). 

         In the pre-chorus, she says that she has a place to live, not a home. Too much abuse has happened to both her and her mother to ever consider home safe.  (“There's not enough rain in Oklahoma/to wash the sins out of that house/There's not enough wind in Oklahoma/to rip the nails out of the past.”)

        In the chorus, she says she wants every piece of her current life gone and never to return to it again. She wants to forget her alcoholic father and start over. (“Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away/Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away/'til there's nothing left standing/Nothing left of yesterday/Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away/Blown away.”)

       By the second verse, she knows the tornado is close. Her father has blacked out from his drinking. She quickly grabs her things, not knowing if he will wake up again and heads for the cellar for safety. She’s certain to take every copy of the key. She leaves him to fend for himself against the heavy winds and flying debris, knowing the physical pain it will cause him. It’s apt considering the emotional damage he has caused her family. She will let the tornado take her dad’s life like her dad took her mom’s. (“She heard those sirens screaming out/her daddy laid there passed out on the couch/She locked herself in the cellar/Listened to the screaming of the wind/Some people called it taking shelter/She called it sweet revenge.”)

        The chorus is sung again.

       A freeing “blown away” is sung.

       The pre-chorus is sung again.

      The chorus is sung again.

       Carrie sings “blown away” four times more to close the song.  At the end, the young woman has gotten her second chance and can begin to heal.

      “Blown Away” is a triumph for Carrie Underwood. For years, she has stuck to the sweet, chirpy side of the country genre. Finally, she takes a chance and releases a song that explores that deals with implied abuse and murder. She’s comfortable with the material. She conveys the anger, resentment and pain in order for the song to be powerful as it is.