‘The Voice’ Winner Cassadee Pope Drops Pop-Punk Country Fusion Album
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for CMT/Viacom Reading Time: 2 minutes
Season 3 champion of The Voice Cassadee Pope is going back to her roots with her latest album, Thrive. The 32-year-old combines pop-punk and country on this new album, the same fusion that led her to victory on the NBC show in 2012. Thrive was released under Awake Music, her own independent label.
Pope is one of the few artists that can successfully merge two very different styles of music seamlessly. She sings about her old bedroom in “Same Old Brand New Me” with posters on the walls and Blink-182 CDs. No matter what she accomplishes in life, she’ll always remember where she came from and not try to change who she is. The Grammy nominee got her start in the music industry playing in the rock band Hey Monday.
One thing Pope did well with Thrive was give fans a variety of songs that don’t all sound the same. “Break Too” is comparable to Avril Lavigne’s earlier hits, some of which Pope covered during her time on The Voice. Somehow, I can also imagine this song on country radio stations. Many of the tracks on Thrive are guitar-heavy, including the title track “Thrive.” Longtime fans will definitely appreciate The Voice star going back to her Hey Monday sound for a few of the songs.
‘The Voice’ Winner Cassadee Pope Shows Rocker Edge on ‘Thrive’ Album
“I wanted to name the album Thrive because that word explodes with empowerment and endurance,” Pope said in a press release. “The title track talks about not just surviving something but thriving from it, and I’m at a point in my life where I can see how the hard times were necessary. I also feel so unapologetically me in this new project, which makes me thrive in every sense of the word!”
If you have just ended a relationship, or need some feel-good music, Thrive is definitely worth giving a listen to. “Remedy” is a great country ballad to belt in the car when you are in your feels. “Some People” is another breakup song with a few zingers thrown in. Pope, much like Taylor Swift, is able to articulate her feelings with lyrics that people will actually remember.
A huge reason why Pope has been able to take this album back to her roots is that she had all of the creative freedom. Pope left Big Machine Records in 2017 after feeling “creatively stunted.” It’s a big risk to decide to release music on your own but it definitely comes with a big reward. Nearly a decade after winning The Voice on Blake Shelton’s team, Pope is still one of the most successful contestants to come out of the show.
