Kelly Clarkson is not just the most successful singer to come out of the American Idol talent factory; she’s also the first for whom the label “artist” seems appropriate. Clarkson’s so effectively broken from the iron grip of the AI cabal that nearly all of the publicity about her third album, My December, has been about the battles she’s fought with her record label and management company to put out the record she wanted to make. The price of her victory may have been to endure negative buzz and even fan backlash, but Clarkson has definitely won: This is her record, through and through.
To start, that means there is no “Since U Been Gone” or “Breakaway” or “Miss Independent” on here, no immediate and indelible pop smash to unite teenyboppers and jaded hipsters as “Gone” did two years ago. Clarkson had a hand in writing every one of December’s songs, and she’s clearly channeling Pink and Evanescence’s Amy Lee far more than Christina Aguilera or Mariah Carey. The songs are full of loud, angry rock guitars and biting lyrics about Clarkson’s exes. “There’s a hole/Inside of me,” she sings on the garage-rocker “Hole,” like Aguilera covering Nirvana, with complete sincerity.
And that’s the thing about this album: Unlike superficial, glossy pop, it takes several listens to appreciate, and even then there aren’t the kind of hooks that stay in your head for weeks. But there’s no doubt that Clarkson truly cares about every word she sings here. She keeps the vocal acrobatics to a minimum, but when she lets loose on the lovely ballad “Sober,” it has power because it has so much feeling behind it.
December doesn’t quite work as a grand pop statement because it consciously eschews grandeur; the ballads are quiet acoustic affairs rather than sweeping orchestral numbers like “Because of You.” Even the funk swagger of “Yeah” and the dance-rock of “How I Feel” (the two most blatantly pop-oriented songs on the album) are understated. December isn’t going to challenge Breakaway’s place in the pop pantheon, but on its own terms it can’t be considered anything other than a success.