"Good Girl" Carrie Underwood

"I like all kinds of music—except country." It's probably a statement you've heard many times before, as though the hearty guitars and endless sorrows of the genre are somehow a foreign species, instead of merely the twangier cousin of rock 'n' roll and R&B. On her new single, "Good Girl," Carrie Underwood blurs those lines effortlessly and fantastically, using sassy hand claps, divalicious belts and a shredding electric guitar to underscore her acerbic takedown of boys who are bad in love and the foolish girls who fall for them. Even the more traditional country chorus turns a banjo riff into a punchy hook. It's an irresistible three-and-a-half minutes power pop—perhaps the best song so far of 2012. I dare those pretentious cosmopolitan folk who fear any association with bumpkins and hillbillies to deny its powerhouse charms. A