A dark and stormy December indeed! (My December - Kelly Clarkson)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	My December - Kelly Clarkson
Date:	24/07/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some really powerful stuff

Disadvantages: Doiesn't click

My December is Kelly Clarkson's third studio album. Development as a singer/songwriter always seems to have a bit of hit and miss, especially when you're the product of a huge talent show such as American Idol, as Kelly is. Having featured in the very manufactured sound her previous two albums, you can see the maturity finally coming through in a lot of the composition here.

Raw passion and emotion seem to be the order of the day from the off, with Never Again almost seeming like we as listeners are being attacked as much as the subject of the lyrics. It's passionate and bitter, but effective. It grabs your attention and makes you want to listen to more - a solid opener. In a way, this mood continues through the album, despite a couple of attempts by Clarkson to lighten the mood. I feel she would have been better off giving us a completely darker side to her throughout, and thus the efforts in tracks such as One Minute go more against the grain than with it.

As the album progresses, tracks such as Judas and Haunted bring different elements into the lyrical nature of the album, showing religion and an almost gothic nature to her, relating well to the artwork on the cover. Indeed, these tracks just go further to show that Clarkson wants to shed the commercial poppy element that seemed to have held her back immediately after her American Idol experience.

However, this shedding reveals a talent that is raw and needs constant nurturing. There are some powerful displays and some experimental sounds here, but not everything works. There are attempts at acoustic sounds trying to rule, but it is almost as if the production team can't resist the urge to thrash out the powerful rock sounds that Kelly's voice had proven successful at following. In this respect, it almost feels as if the aim of the tracks are in a sort of cross-genre limbo. It's definitely rock, but of what sort? The combos don't completely add up, and while it seems to be a curiously successful combination as an album, some of the individual tracks don't add up for me, and make it hard to listen to and enjoy.

In fact, it's not until we reach Irvine, at the end of the album, that the lyrics and instrumental sounds combine perfectly with an acoustic feel to them. Up until this point, my general feeling was of disappointment. There is no denying she can sing, and write powerfully, and it is surely only a matter of time before the maturity slots in with tverythign else to bring us something special. This is a much lauded album, for many valid reasons, but I just felt that the overall combination and set up with the tracks didn't sit comfortably with me. There are a lot of differing and warring elements going on here, and I just couldn't rein them all in to enjoy this completely.

Tracklisting:

1 Never Again
2 One Minute
3 Hole
4 Sober
5 Don't Waste Your Time
6 Judas
7 Haunted
8 Be Still
9 Maybe
10 How I Feel
11 Yeah
12 Can I Have A Kiss
13 Irvine

Summary: Kelly Clarkson's third studio album