The forecast is stormy on Carrie Underwood’s fourth album – as usual. Cloudless skies don’t suit her – she’s most comfortable leaning into a stiff breeze, letting a blues growl creep into her phrasing while unleashing songs like “Two Black Cadillacs” (in which a wife and mistress murder a cad) and the title track, a wind-whipped ballad about, yep, a tornado. Underwood’s voice is as powerful as ever, but Blown Away tries too hard, ratcheting up melodrama with strings and effects. She’s at her best in a more restrained mode on the weeper “Wine After Whiskey.” As for “One Way Ticket,” a foray into country “reggae,” let’s just say beach weather isn’t Underwood’s thing.

Key Tracks: "Wine After Whiskey," "Two Black Cadillacs"