Underwood, Spears release albums same day

NEW YORK - Carrie Underwood, “Carnival Ride”
After a debut album that sold 6 million-plus copies, Carrie Underwood is under significant pressure to keep the momentum going. The Oklahoman delivers in spades on her sophomore effort, on which she was much more involved in the creative process. First single “So Small,” No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, is a soaring song about the important things in life. “Just a Dream” is the tale of the death of a young soldier from the perspective of his girl back home, while “Last Name,” about a drunken flirtation that turns into a Vegas marriage, is a fun diversion. Underwood provides a growling and gritty vocal on the defiant “Flat on the Floor” and convincingly covers Randy Travis’ 1988 hit “I Told You So,” which has long deserved a second life.

Britney Spears, “Blackout”
There’s an appropriate bleakness to Britney Spears’ first album in four years, and her first as a tabloid figure rather than a vibrant teen idol. The hazy-eyed bump-and-grind of her “Gimme More” MTV Video Music Awards performance fits all this material: It’s defiant like a bad drunk, uncomfortably oversexed and more at home in a seedy after-hours club than a celebrity ultra-lounge. The music ranges from shockingly minimal — “Piece of Me” and “Radar” have the synth fugues and smudgy bass of current underground electro and little else — to novelty pop, like the J.J. Fad-styling of “Freakshow” and Gwen Stefani-ripping snare march of “Toy Soldier.” Spears is threatening or seducing, or both, on every track. This is still pop, but the last bits of Spears’ song-and-dance girl veneer are cracking, along with the rest of her public persona.

The Eagles, “Long Road Out of Eden”
The first Eagles album since 1979 rolls forth with the one-two punch of the harmony-laden “No More Walks in the Wood” and the familiar-sounding country rock of “How Long,” a J.D. Souther song from the early ’70s that could just as easily have been the follow-up to “Take It Easy.” The rest is more vintage Eagles, cutting the usual wide stylistic swath from rockers like “Fast Company” and Joe Walsh’s Steely Dan-flavored “Last Good Time in Town” to country-flavored midtempos, heart-rending ballads, funk, brow-furrowing introspection and pointed sociopolitical commentaries (”Business As Usual” and the 10-minute title track). It’s all a testament to the durable Eagles footprint on the pop landscape.

Backstreet Boys, “Unbreakable”
While the turn of phrase may be cliché, the overall sound of “Unbreakable” screams it loud and clear: Backstreet’s back. Unlike 2005’s uneven “comeback” album, “Never Gone,” this follow-up finds the Boys dipping into their old bag of classic pop songs. They are a boy band with spot-on harmonies: They sing huge, hooky choruses; belt out sappy bridges; and bop and groove to slickly produced dance numbers. Nearly everything here is top 40 or adult contemporary radio-ready, particularly the piano-driven first single, “Inconsolable,” and the Beatles-y “Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon.” The boy-band heyday might be long over, and the group is now a man down (Kevin Richardson departed to pursue other interests), but Backstreet’s ready to try to melt your heart once again.

Various Artists, “I’m Not There”
There are tribute albums, and there are tribute albums to Bob Dylan that are two discs long and packed full of hipsters; “I’m Not There” is one of those ideas that will probably appeal to about as many people as it disquiets. But as you might expect, most of the homages on this sonic all-star game are reverent to the point of worshipful: Jeff Tweedy’s “Simple Twist of Fate” is spare and lovely, Jim James and Calexico unite for a gorgeous “Goin’ to Acapulco” and John Doe’s gospeled-up “Pressing On” (from “Saved”) and “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” are among the best of the bunch. As for the man himself, Dylan turns in the first official release of the oft-bootlegged title track with the Band, recently discovered in Neil Young’s archives.

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