Kelly Clarkson Piece by Piece

Ever since the perceived failure of her deeply personal 2007 album My December, inaugural American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson has been taking her music in increasingly generic directions, and Piece by Piece, her sixth album, is her most impersonal work yet. As she did on her last two albums, Clarkson has worked with a team of in-demand pop songwriters and producers, including Sia, Greg Kurstin, MoZella and Sir Nolan, to put together a collection of appealing but mostly unremarkable songs, full of blandly uplifting lyrics and mildly catchy hooks. Clarkson herself has only three co-writing credits, her lowest number ever. The only song that feels like it’s completely hers is the title track, with its impassioned rejection of the father who abandoned her, recalling anguished 2005 hit “Because of You.”

Elsewhere, the album gets bogged down in a mushy middle, with interchangeable midtempo empowerment anthems like “Invincible” and “I Had a Dream.” Opener (and lead single) “Heartbeat Song” is the kind of catchy pop that Clarkson excels at, and the album closes with a couple more solid dance-pop numbers (“Nostalgic,” “Good Goes the Bye”). While they’re elevated by Clarkson’s still-fantastic voice, they evaporate quickly, leaving no more of an impression than a hastily assembled single from one of Clarkson’s many inferior Idol successors.