It really feels like singers who were booted early on from “American Idol” or ultimately failed to win the most viewer votes have ultimately gone on to have more chart success and fame than the winners. There are a few exceptions like Carrie Underwood, whose presence in country music for the last 15 years is undeniable. But Jennifer Hudson, who finished seventh but ultimately won an Oscar and Grammy, Adam Lambert, who now fronts Queen, and Lauren Alaina, who hit No. 1 on country radio five years after finishing second on “Idol.” Now she’s gearing up to release her third studio album, Sitting Pretty on Top of the World, ripe with full-blown, country jams about drinking, boys and respecting pretty girls.

In 2017, Road Less Traveled featured a string of popular songs and led Alaina to be the top-streamed female country artist of the year. It’s a move she’s clearly trying to replicate on her newest LP. Featuring a collaboration with the legendary Trisha Yearwood on “Getting Good” and duets with Jon Pardi and Danish pop band Lukas Graham, she attempts to find the groove that’s situated in country themes with a more universal, less twangy and more powerful singing style.

Alaina penned the majority of the tracks on the album, collaborating with an array of songwriters like Hillary Lindsay, Lori McKenna and Liz Rose, all of whom have dominated the country songwriting scene in the last decade with hits like “Jesus Take the Wheel,” “You Belong With Me” and “Girl Crush.” The three of them cowrote tracks like “Same Story, Different Saturday Night,” about southern belles hitting the dance floor and kissing strangers. On “Written In The Bar,” a mid-tempo beat guides Alaina as she talks “tequila hearts talking” and how love often isn’t written in the sand but instead in a dive bar. “Made a wish on my salt and lime,” she sings. Now that’s a country lyric.  

She channels the same energy that led her as far as she got on “Idol” on “If the World Was a Small Town,” where she dreams of a bigger world and life as a successful singer. She looks at her life as if she’d stayed in her hometown of Rossville, Georgia, whose population count ticks in under 5,000. “Boy, if I didn’t feel so stuck, I woulda stuck around,” she sings after imagining her life with a wraparound porch and a couple of babies before singing praise for herself for making it out.

Last year Lauren Alaina released two EPs, Getting Good and Getting Over Him, each of which featured tracks that made their way onto this album. Her duet with Graham, “What Do You Think Of?” (from the latter) is perhaps the least “country” song here. Supported by a simple piano and vocal cooing from the pair, the song is their attempt at a hit like “Say Something,” though country references aren’t absent. Graham recounts “smokey mountains” and “airbrush T-shirts,” which definitely aren’t that popular in Denmark.

“Run” follows with a mid-tempo pace that quickens as she tells the story of those leaving home and dreaming of a bigger world. It’s not always easy, but like “the muddy water running,’’ change is bound to happen. Then on “Good Ole Boy,” she flexes perhaps her best lyric on the album. “If you took care of me/ Like the cowboy boots that make you over 6 feet tall,” she sings, telling the man exactly why she’s no longer his. She concludes that it’s OK to realize someone’s good, just not good for you.

“When The Party’s Over” is not a cover of Billie Eilish’s moodiest song and is more like a mid-aughts Carrie Underwood tune. It’s country as hell and should definitely be a single. “You only miss me when you’re hitting that whiskey,” she sings, calling out a guy for only hitting her up on wild weekend nights. It’s upbeat and undeniably one to which you’ll be singing along by the end of your first listen.

Sitting Pretty on Top of the World concludes with “Change My Mind,” featuring calming guitar strumming to elevate the story of Alaina being unsure of her family’s approval of her choice in a man. “Make my heart change my mind/ Make it beat one more time,” she sings. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but she makes it her own with a strong performance to conclude her most personal record.

Follow Domenic Strazzabosco at Twitter.com/domenicstrazz and Instagram.com/domenicstrazz.