Track review: Carrie Underwood's "Temporary Home"

Carrie Underwood gives what will perhaps be remembered as her most emotionally invested, beautifully sung vocal performance of her career to date on “Temporary Home.” The song, which is the eighth track on the country starlet’s latest album ‘Play On’ (Nov. 3), explores new areas of artistic expression.

From the opening piano chord to the final note, Underwood masterfully narrates three powerful accounts by people who are in need of help but instead look to a day where they can be together again with their loved ones in heaven. The stories of a six-year-old boy in foster care, a single mother at a halfway house and elderly man on his deathbed, pull at the heartstrings of listeners. Not since “Jesus, Take the Wheel” has there been such a moving country musical composition.

The songwriting here is top-notch, with Underwood receiving help from Luke Laird and Zac Maloy. The fact that Laird drew on his childhood experience in penning the track is even more remarkable because it is given a sense of sincerity. Despite the extra moving storylines featured in the verses of “Home,” it is in the chorus where the lyrics are most effective (“This is my temporary home / it’s not where I belong / windows and rooms / that I’m passing through / this is just a stop / on the way to where I‘m going / I’m not afraid because I know / this is my temporary home”).

As for her vocals, Underwood charts new territory in showcasing control in her falsetto. There are no true glory notes, nor are there any rousing crescendos, simply because they are not needed. Instead, Underwood opts for an overall soft-spoken tone, which allows listeners to pay close attention to the lyrics rather than production and vocal acrobatics that are found in most songs nowadays.

If “Before He Cheats” and “Last Name” can each win at the Grammys, it would by a travesty if Carrie Underwood does not take home an award for “Temporary Home” sometime in the near future. If ever there was a song that deserved such recognition, this is it.

"Temporary Home" is now available to download on iTunes for $1.29.