Cry Pretty

Development and production In April 2018, Underwood released a statement on the album, stating that she felt "stronger and more creative than ever" at that point in her career, and that the record reflects this growth through its emotional, soulful, and authentic tone, while still allowing "some fun". Songwriter and producer David Garcia was selected to co-produce the album with Underwood, and Cry Pretty marks Underwood's first effort as producer, with her co-writing nine of the album's thirteen tracks. Although the making of the album had been going on for nearly a year before Underwood's fall and subsequent injuries in 2017, she wasn't able to record vocals for the songs until 2018, due to the damage to her mouth. Themes Underwood had reserved the track "The Bullet" for several album cycles, finally deciding to release it on the Cry Pretty album. Underwood co-wrote the album's title track following three miscarriages over a two-year period, drawing on personal experiences in which she was privately enduring "horrible things" while continuing to present herself publicly through interviews and photoshoots. She further explained that, unlike much of her earlier work, the album's more personal material compelled her to write directly about herself, stating that amid the ups and downs of the previous year and early 2018, it was simply "what was on my mind and on my heart". Underwood described the album as her most personal project to date, explaining that she was more creatively involved than ever before and expressing pride in the result. She added that her hope was for listeners to "find something that makes them feel something". ==Composition==

Cry Pretty spans pop, country, and R&B, with Underwood sounding "better than ever" following her recovery period. In addition, the record's sound blends "rafters-reaching country anthems" while incorporating dance and hip-hop rhythms into a "radio-ready twang-pop" framework. Underwood employs a familiar structural approach; having "pinned down the formula" by nodding to country tradition, incorporating "thick pop production", and centering the album around ballads that "build until she can release that big voice", with "just enough bounce" used to maintain momentum across the record. Lyrically, Cry Pretty foregrounds emotional openness as a central organizing principle, and this approach is established on the title track, which opens with the admission that Underwood is "not usually the kind to show my heart to the world", before the album proceeds to explore emotions she had previously kept "in reserve" across its runtime. Several songs address themes including broken relationships, substance abuse, gun violence, and equality. In particular, "The Bullet" is described as the album's main "statement" on gun violence, a song Underwood had "been considering for inclusion on several albums" before using it in response to the Las Vegas mass shooting. The album places this material within a polished, radio-oriented framework combining "uplift" and "melancholy". ==Release and promotion==

Underwood announced the album on April 8, 2018. The track list of the album and its songwriting credits were released prior to the listening event, on August 20. She performed the title track for the first time at the 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards on April 15, which was well received by critics. She returned to American Idol on May 13, to give the second televised performance of "Cry Pretty". On June 6, she performed "Cry Pretty" at 2018 CMT Music Awards, and "Spinning Bottles" at 2018 American Music Awards on October 9. She gave her first live performance of "Southbound" at the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards on April 7, 2019. On May 19, she performed the song at American Idol and Nashville's Parthenon on June 5. Underwood performed "Low" from the album on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The album's fourth single, "Drinking Alone," had its debut televised performance at the 53rd Country Music Association awards on November 13. Singles "Cry Pretty", the first single from the album, was released on April 11, 2018. Three days before of its release, she teased the song through her social media alongside an image of her eye with glitters placed underneath. Two days later, she shared an open letter, showing the co-writers of the song, Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose and Lori McKenna, as well as the meaning of its title. On May 6, the music video of the song was released. Commercially, "Cry Pretty" debuted at number 20 and peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It topped the Digital Songs chart with 54,000 downloads sold in its first week, becoming Underwood's first song to do so, and it also debuted at number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at number nine on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. "Love Wins" was released as the second single from the album on August 31, 2018, alongside a lyric video. Underwood, David Garcia and Brett James co-wrote the song, and the former of two produced it. The music video for "Love Wins" was released on September 11. It debuted at number 30 on the Hot Country Songs chart for the week of September 15. On September 7, "End Up with You" was released as a promotional single. "Southbound" was released as the third single from the album on April 29, 2019. Its music video was released on June 8. Written by Underwood, Garcia and Josh Miller, it reached number three on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and number 11 on the Hot Country Songs chart. It was co-written by Underwood, Garcia and James, as well as impacted terrestrial radio on October 28 and country radio on November 4. Tour On August 8, 2018, Underwood announced Cry Pretty Tour 360 in support of the album; the first date was May 1, 2019, in Greensboro, North Carolina and the tour concluded on October 31 in Detroit, Michigan, playing 54 shows. Runaway June and Maddie & Tae were the supporting acts of the tour. ==Critical reception==

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album has an average score of 69, based on eleven reviews. Several reviewers highlighted the album's stylistic direction and Underwood's vocal authority within a pop-leaning country framework. Rolling Stone gave Cry Pretty three and a half stars, describing it as a "modern country album pivoting into pop and R&B" with "grade-A" songwriting and Underwood's "mighty" voice carrying even its weaker moments, while noting that its "architecture is often R&B at [its] core" despite echoes of artists such as Adele and Beyoncé. The Diamondback likewise characterized Cry Pretty as "poised and mature", praising its lyricism, falsettos, and sustained vulnerability, and concluding that the album reinforces Underwood's "country regality" while it reflects growth both musically and personally. More critical responses questioned the album's lyrical specificity and the weight of its thematic gestures. The Los Angeles Times acknowledged that Underwood "sets off all kinds of vocal fireworks", but argued that the songwriting often frames emotions in overly generalized terms, which makes it difficult to discern a clear sense of personal specificity across the record. Paste expressed a related reservation, suggesting that while the album touches on issues such as gun violence and equality, its approach remains relatively restrained, and that its broader significance lies less in lyrical boldness than in the fact that it will reach "millions of people all over the world". ==Accolades==

At the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, Cry Pretty received a nomination for Top Country Album and for Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year at the 53rd Annual Country Music Association Awards. The album won the award for Favorite Country Album at the 47th Annual American Music Awards, making Underwood the only artist to receive that award for every album they have released. ==Commercial performance==

In the United States, Cry Pretty debuted on top of the Billboard 200 with 266,000 album-equivalent units, including 251,000 pure album sales, giving Underwood her fourth number-one album, and making her the first woman to have four number-one country albums on the chart. It is the largest sales week for a country album since Luke Bryan's Kill the Lights in 2015, and the biggest sales week for a female artist in 2018. It was the seventh best-selling album of 2018 in the United States, with 401,000 copies sold that year. Cry Pretty opened at number four on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart, It also debuted at number 12 in Scotland ==Track listing==

Credits were adapted from iTunes Store. All songs were produced by Carrie Underwood and David Garcia, except "The Champion", produced by Jim Jonsin. Notes • "The Champion" bonus track was not included on the LP release. == Personnel ==

• Carrie Underwood – lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 2, 4–8, 10, 11, 12), percussion (11) • Dave Cohen – keyboards (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12), programming (6, 7, 10, 12) • Charlie Judge – keyboards (3, 8), programming (3) • Jason Evigan – keyboards (6), programming (6) • Fred Williams – keyboards (6, 12), programming (6, 12) • Sarah Emily Berrios – programming (8) • Will Weatherly – keyboards (11), programming (11) • Robert Dante – keyboards (13), acoustic piano (13) • David Garcia – acoustic guitar (1, 7, 10), electric guitar (3, 5, 8, 11), keyboards (3–12), programming (3–8, 10, 11, 12), drums (4), backing vocals (4), percussion (11) • Ilya Toshinsky – acoustic guitar (1, 2, 5, 11, 12), bouzouki (2), banjo (5), dobro (5), electric guitar (5), mandolin (5, 10, 12), resonator guitar (6) • Dan Dugmore – pedal steel guitar (1, 3, 6, 8–12) • Tom Bukovac – electric guitar (1,2, 5, 7, 10) • Rob McNelley – electric guitar (1,2, 3, 5–8, 10, 11, 12) • Steve Hinson – pedal steel guitar (2) • Hillary Lindsey – acoustic guitar (3), backing vocals (4, 8, 11) • Bryan Sutton – acoustic guitar (3, 4, 8) • Danny Rader – acoustic guitar (3, 4, 6, 8, 10), electric guitar (3, 4, 8, 12), dobro (6, 7) • Michael Burman – guitar (13) • Bones Owens – guitar (13) • Ben Haggard – acoustic guitar (13) • Jimmie Lee Sloas – bass guitar (1–8, 10, 12) • Chris McHugh – drums (1, 2, 3, 5–8, 10, 12), percussion (1, 11) • Nir Z. – drums (11) • Austin Hoke – cello (9) • Carole Rabinowitz – cello (10, 12) • Kris Wilkinson – viola (10, 12) • Will Hoge – harmonica (5) • David Angell – violin (10, 12) • David Davidson – violin (10, 12), strings arrangements (10, 12) • Holly Williams – backing vocals (2) • Ivey Childers – backing vocals (5) • Jenni Fairbanks – backing vocals (5) • Amanda Luftburrow – backing vocals (5) • Will Hoge – backing vocals (6) • Josh Miller – backing vocals (5) • Dave Barnes – backing vocals (10) • Perry Coleman – backing vocals (10) • Vicki Hampton – backing vocals (10) • Brett James – backing vocals (10) • Wendy Moten – backing vocals (10) • Ludacris – featured rapper (13) • The McCrary Sisters – backing vocals (13) Production • David Garcia – producer (1–12), editing (1–12) • Carrie Underwood – producer (1–12), creative director • Jim Jonsin – producer (13), mixing (13) • John Ditty – engineer (1–12), editing (1–12) • John Hanes – engineer (1–12) • Kam Luchterhand – engineer (1–12) • Doug Johnson – mixing (1–12) • Chris Lord-Alge – mixing (1, 3, 8) • Mark Endert – mixing (2, 12) • Serban Ghenea – mixing (4–7, 9, 10, 11) • Niko Marzouca – engineer (13), mixing (13) • Rob Marks – mixing (13) • Adam Chagnon – musical assistance • Nik Karpen – musical assistance • Nate Lowery – production manager • Bethany Newman – art direction • Joshua Sage Newman – art direction • Parker Foote – design • Randee St. Nicholas – photography • Ann Edelbulte – manager ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==