Kelly Clarkson
All I Ever Wanted
2009, RCA
pop/rock
½
All right, I had to give in and review this one. This is Kelly Clarkson’s big comeback from the disaster that was My December, and she does a decent enough job. If you buy this album you’re not buying it for the lyrics so I won’t even mention them. But I have two points that I feel need to be brought up: Kelly clearly worked on her vocals since My December, and she’s clearly ‘sold out’ in an effort to make it big.
I’m one of those people who can’t stand it when music snobs point fingers and accuse artists of ‘selling out’ the minute they get signed on a big record label, so when I accuse Clarkson of doing so here, I’m not referring to that. What I am referring to is the utter lack of ‘Kelly Clarkson’ in this album. In an effort to recoup her losses from My December, Clarkson has made the same mistake that Gwen Stefani made in Love.Angel.Music.Baby – using too many different writers. As a result, All I Ever Wanted is essentially a bunch of singles that reflect their writers and don’t really say anything about Clarkson. Case in point: I was able to distinguish every single song that was co-written by Ryan Tedder (of OneRepublic fame) on the first listen.
On the other hand, Clarkson’s vocal chops are more than up to the challenge of changing with every song, which is pretty amazing. I don’t think we’ve ever had a chance to see her vocal range in this way, and despite all of my mutterings, she’ll probably be laughing all the way to the bank with this one. At least we still have someone in pop who can sing.
As a side note, will someone teach this girl how to NOT look like a robot on her album and single covers?
“Already Gone,” “Don’t Let Me Stop You,” “Impossible.”
myspace, leaked on mtv.com
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