Great Songs by Women | 3BOPS

On the 55th edition of 3BOPS, we select three ‘GREAT’ songs by women – Carrie Underwood, Lana Del Rey, and Taylor Swift.

O

n 3BOPS, we are totally dedicated to keeping things L-I-T-E! Similar to 5ive Songs, there’s a topic and a short blurb, only with THREE songs instead of FIVE.  Yes, it’s a playlist, but it’s a miniature playlist that shouldn’t take much time to consume.  On the 55^th edition of 3BOPS (2021), we select three ‘GREAT’ songs by women – 🎙 Carrie Underwood, 🎙 Lana Del Rey, and 🎙 Taylor Swift.

---

1. Carrie Underwood, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”

💿 My Savior • 🏷 UMG Recordings, Inc. • 📅 2021

Secular musicians who are religious and attribute their faith in God to their success often release at least one faith-based song or even an entire album.  For country musician 🎙 Carrie Underwood, she opted for an entire country-gospel album, 💿 My Savior (2021).  For the most part, Underwood keeps things traditional, opting for familiar hymns as opposed to lesser-known or more CCM numbers.  This, of course, bodes well in her favor, particularly on the likes of beloved hymn, 🎵 “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness” arrives as the sixth track on My Savior.  Underwood is incredible on her own with her powerhouse vocals.  Honestly, they’ve only grown more powerful and ripe with age.  Even so, Carrie enlists a surprise collaborator: 🎙 CeCe Winans. Mic drop!  Honestly, not just anyone can sing with CeCe, who can both sing with restraint and ‘bring the house down.’ On this collaborative take on “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” both vocalists bring their ‘A game’ – understatement! On the first verse, Underwood sings with poise and control, but also incredibly expressively with great sincerity.  On the second verse, Winans brings more punch and oomph, evolving the performance to a higher, more spiritual level.  You can just sense where “Great is Thy Faithfulness” is going to end up.  Underwood goes on to ‘up the ante’ on the third verse, with both artists trading chilling lines on the chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord, unto me.”

These two 🏆 Grammy winners shine, giving praise to The Most High.

Also appears on 🔽:

• Carrie Underwood, Great is Thy Faithfulness: Sunday Refresh 🙏 No. 7 (2021)

---

2. Lana Del Rey, “The Greatest”

💿 Norman Fucking Rockwell! • 🏷 Interscope • 📅 2019

Grammy-nominated alternative pop singer/songwriter 🎙 Lana Del Rey delivered arguably her best album to date with the explicitly titled, sixth studio album, 💿 Norman Fucking Rockwell!. Some people adore Lana, while others are mixed.  She’s a truly polarizing musician, yet, possesses quite the distinct, beautiful musical instrument.  Arguably, she’s only improved over the years.  She shines on 🎵 “The Greatest,” among the crème de la crème of NFR!.

“I want shit to feel just like it used to / When, baby, I was doing nothing’ the most of all.” Ah, “The Greatest” provides some more punch to NFR!, with its spirited guitars and retro-tinged sound. This is one of the late, truly great songs on the album.  Here, Lana Del Rey is reminiscent, missing a past romance (“I miss Long Beach and I miss you, babe”), New York, and rock (“I miss New York and I miss the music / Me and my friends, we miss rock ‘n’ roll”).  The outro is quite scintillating, as Del Rey lists the current happenings, which include forest fires in Los Angeles and Kanye West’s state of mind.

Also appears on 🔽:

• 15 G Songs Selected with No Rhyme or Reason

---

3. Taylor Swift, “The last great American dynasty”

💿 folklore • 🏷 Taylor Swift • 📅 2020

🎵 “The last great American dynasty” marks another utterly sublime gem from 💿 folklore. Folklore, notably, earned 🎙 Taylor Swift her third 🏆 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, tying 🎙 Paul Simon and 🎙 Stevie Wonder with three wins in the prestigious category.  But enough about the hardware – let’s focus on the ‘great’ song at hand.

In the context of folklore, “The last great American dynasty” doesn’t miss a beat, placing emphasis on top-notch songwriting.  Here, Swift imparts a compelling narrative where Rebekah essentially ends a great American dynasty, or so is the perception of those who knew Bill.  On the chorus, Taylor sings:

“And they said
There goes the last great American dynasty
Who knows, if she never showed up, what could’ve been
There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen
She had a marvelous time ruining everything.”

Eventually, there’s a plot twist, where Taylor becomes Rebekah, living as she deems fit, yet also being judged as “the loudest woman this town has ever seen.” It’s a fantastic moment on aa stacked album – the most deserved of her three wins for AOTY.

---

Great Songs By Women: 3BOPS No. 55 (2021) [📷: Brent Faulkner, Clay Banks on Unsplash, Interscope, The Musical Hype, Wilson Blanco from Pixabay, Taylor Swift, UMG Recordings, Inc.]

---