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Kelly Clarkson: My December

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: RCA Records
Released: 2007.06.26
Time:
 51:46
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: *******... (7/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.kellyclarkson.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2008.07.27
Price in €: 2,59



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Never Again (Clarkson/Messer) - 3:37
[2] One Minute (Clarkson/DioGuardi/Kreviazuk/Maida) - 3:05
[3] Hole (Baker/Clarkson/Messer) - 3:02
[4] Clarkson/Eubanks/McEntire/Messer) - 4:52
[5] Don't Waste Your Time (Clarkson/Messer/Pardon/Rinman) - 3:36
[6] Judas (Baker/Clarkson/Messer) - 3:37
[7] Haunted (Clarkson/Halbert/Messer) - 3:19
[8] Be Still (Clarkson/Eubanks) - 3:25
[9] Maybe (Clarkson/Eubanks/Messer) - 4:23
[10] How I Feel (Baker/Clarkson/Messer) - 3:41
[11] Yeah (Clarkson/Messer/Pardon/Rinman) - 2:43
[12] Can I Have a Kiss (Baker/Clarkson/Messer) - 3:32
[13] Irvine (Clarkson/Eubanks) - 8:47
 

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Kelly Clarkson - Vocals, Executive Producer

Jeff Carney - Double Bass
Aben Eubanks - Guitar, Keyboards, Programming, Lap Steel Guitar
Jason Halbert - Keyboards, Programming, Producer
Aaron Heick - Alto Saxophone
David Kahne - Keyboards, Programming, Producer, Engineer
Jimmy Messer - Guitar, Producer, Engineer
Andy Laster - Baritone Saxophone
Billy Mohler - Bass
Shawn Pelton - Drums
Andrew Sterman - Conductor, Tenor Saxophone
Mike Watt - Bass
Rob Brill - Drum Programming

Mick Rossi - Conductor, Orchestration, Orchestral Arrangements
Cenovia Cummins - Violin
Erik Friedlander - Cello
Joyce Hammann - Violin
Lori Miller - Violin
Sarah Seiver - Cello
Roger Shell - Cello
Antoine Silverman - Violin
Wendy Sutter - Cello
Hiroko Taguchi - Violin
Entcho Todorov - Violin
Paul Woodiel - Violin
David Siskovic - Beats

Joe Barresi - Engineer
Andy Wallace - Mixing
Bob Ludwig - Mastering

Jeff Kwatinetz - Executive Producer
Chris Owens - Assistant Engineer
Chapman Baehler - Photography
Brett Kilroe - Art Direction, Design
Campbell McAuley - Hair Stylist
Vivian Ng - Design
Mike Scielzi - Mixing Assistant
Jennifer Sousa - Coordination, Artist Coordination
Emma Trask - Stylist
 

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Clarkson's third full-length represents her biggest push for career and artistic control. Her crack studio band provides rock punch, and there is a plethora of studio tricks that give the album an extra layer of sonic muscle, enhancing itsangsty vibe. While there's no one track that strikes gold quite like her bubblegum anthem 'Since U Been Gone', 'My December' is certainly Clarkson's most ambitious and challengingalbum to date.

Ever since she won the first-ever AMERICAN IDOL reality-TV competition, Kelly Clarkson has tried to distance herself from the very institution that brought her fame. More so than any PR move or interview sound bite, however, it's Clarkson's third full-length that may represent her biggest push for career and artistic control. MY December kicks off with the album's first single, "Never Again," and with the opening line "I hope the ring you gave to her/turns her finger green," Clarkson begins one of the most ornery pop albums ever written with the charts in mind (and things don't let up from there).

While Clarkson is no Trent Reznor, song after song here resonates with the disillusionment, bitterness, and vulnerability that come from spent relationships, romantic or otherwise. Her crack studio band provides rock punch, and there is a plethora of studio tricks that give the album an extra layer of sonic muscle, enhancing its angsty vibe. MY December is a curious record, and the presence of punk elder statesmen Mike Watt on bass only makes the proceedings that much more peculiar. While there's no one track that strikes gold quite like her bubblegum anthem "Since U Been Gone," MY December is certainly Clarkson's most ambitious and challenging album to date.



Judging by the themes of anger and betrayal that dominate Kelly Clarkson's third disc, My December, perhaps 'Jagged Little Idol' would have been a more telling title. According to interviews, the massively successful artist wanted more creative control with her music going forward; as a result, unlike her previous CDs, Clarkson contributes as a songwriter on every track. The final product is not nearly as catchy as Breakaway, but is far more introspective and honest. My December's overall sound brings a harder musical style than fans might expect, with acerbic lyrics to match; the disc's first single "Never Again" - a dark rock song slamming her ex-boyfriend - is certainly a tip-off. The compelling chorus of "Hole" finds Clarkson singing "There's a hole/inside of me/it's so damn cold/slowly killing me" over a melody that is far more Tool than top-40. "Haunted" and "Judas" are wrought-over tracks that veer into Evanescence territory, while the wonderfully sparse "Maybe" is a highlight within which Clarkson's pleading voice is perfectly showcased. My December's final listed track, "Irvine" (prior to the hidden bluesy acoustic ballad "Chivas") sounds far more Cat Power-meets-Corinne Bailey Rae than Clarkson, but it is certainly one of the most captivating songs on the disc, and serves as yet another reminder of just how versatile her voice is. Fans of her previous radio-friendly releases may well be divided on her new direction, but it appears to be the path Clarkson is likely to continue to travel.

Denise Sheppard - Amazon.com



If any pop album of 2007 seemed like a sure thing, it was Kelly Clarkson's third record, My December. Kelly definitively shook off the stigma of American Idol with her second album, Breakaway, and, in particular, its smash hit "Since U Been Gone," an anthem so irresistible it was inescapable, beloved by teenage girls and hipsters alike (it even inspired a pretty good cover from oak-hearted indie hero Ted Leo). Kelly had it all: hits and some burgeoning cred, so it seemed that there was no way to screw up the next album, the one that would cement her as a rock & roll queen. Turns out, that was a large part of the problem: Clarkson wanted to be a rocker, while her benefactor, the legendary record mogul Clive Davis, wanted her to stick as a pop star, setting the stage for a massive battle that spilled over into the tabloids and blogs. Kelly wrote and recorded her album as a rock record - getting much mileage out of PR shots of her mugging with Minuteman Mike Watt, which also helped strengthen her legitimacy as a rocker (even though all the accompanying articles suggested she didn't really know fIREHOSE from Firehouse, but to be fair, how many people do in 2007?) - but when it came time to release it, Davis balked, allegedly claiming there were no hit singles on the record at a label conference (then playing a few cuts as proof) and then taking several not-so-veiled swipes at her during the 2007 American Idol finale. Clarkson held her ground, insisting that My December come out the way she intended, firing her management team after the fight with Davis (afterward, her first headlining arena tour was canceled, only increasing her bad press), but eventually getting the album in the stores in late June 2007.

My December proves that both camps were correct: Davis is correct that there are no big crossover hits here, yet it's also true that this is an artistic move that Clarkson needed to make. If left up to Davis, she would simply be another vocalist singing professional product - the kind of singer AmIdol was designed to find. But Clarkson is young and moderately hip - at least hip enough to know that she wants to sound fresher, younger than American Idol, so she needed to shake loose the shackles of the pop machine. That, combined with real-life heartbreak (her guy left her, a situation she doesn't shy away from on the album's lyrics), gave her the fuel to turn her third album into an statement of purpose. Unfortunately, what she wants to be is Evanescence - gothic and operatic, filled with roiling emotions but few hooks. She tempers this with a few rock moves learned from Pink, but the end result is that My December is more sound than song, which is nevertheless kind of modern: although this sound is starting to show its age as Hot Topic stores are starting to shutter, it nevertheless is a very contemporary sound and suits those girls who are growing up with Kelly, following her from Idol, through college, into an uneasy adulthood. It's a soundtrack to their lives, and perhaps even more so than before, since this awkward record is the sound of Kelly negotiating adulthood, unafraid of making mistakes. Even if it's not heavy on strong songs, it ironically is the most sonically unified record Kelly has made to date: it follows through on Clarkson's vision of being a modern rocker, cutting away all the stultifying adult contemporary and replacing it with emotional acoustic ballads but relying on surging rockers. It's what Kelly wanted to do, so on that level it's a success and one that listeners who share her viewpoint (and quite likely her age) will respond to, but for everybody else, My December is a disappointment. To those like Davis, who always viewed her as nothing more than a singer - expecting Kelly to be a pop version of Carrie Underwood and singing whatever pretty song is put in front of her - it's a crushing disappointment because it is deliberately not a pop record. Not that it's alienating, per se - as Kelly said prior to its release, "it's not Metallica," it's doesn't push away the listeners - but there are no hooks, nothing to suck in the many adults who liked Clarkson's first two records. And that's not limited to the middle-Americans who turned her into the first American Idol, either: there aren't hooks for the hipsters or pop junkies who loved "Since U Been Gone" (or even "Breakaway" and "Miss Independent"), the kind of listeners who have been craving Kelly Clarkson to be a cool rock chick, since she has the pipes and spunkiness to be everybody's favorite girl-next-door rocker. But that's not what Kelly wants to be - she wants to be Amy Lee or Pink, turning inward and writing from the heart, chronicling a turbulent time in her life. A few times, she comes up aces - whether it's the bubbly electronics of "One Minute" that give this album some much needed spark, or the ruminative acoustic "Irvine" - but these are hard-won, modest triumphs surrounded by over-reaching confessions that play like clichés. And that's the conundrum of Kelly Clarkson - she's a terrific singer and a very likeable star, but she achieved her fame by just wanting to be a singer, and after she achieved fame, she wanted to be an artist by going against the very music that earned her an audience. She may retain her hardcore fans, but it's unlikely that the mass audience will follow, since she's not making music for the masses here. Nevertheless, as Simon Cowell so sagely argued, by winning Idol and turning into a star in her own right, she's earned the right to follow her gut, no matter where it leads, so she's entitled to a difficult third album like My December. The real question now is where does this road lead her?

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



From the Alanis Morissette-reminiscent lead single, "Never Again" ("I hope the ring you gave to her turns her finger green") to the aptly titled "Judas" ("After we've been through so much / How could you let me down"), betrayal is a recurring theme throughout Kelly Clarkson's edgier third album, My December. Despite the pre-release drama - Clarkson canceled her tour, fired her manager, and was publicly chastised by music impresario Clive Davis for the record's rock leanings and self-penned material - My December is a bold and admirable record. Throughout, Clarkson's alternately smoky and soaring pipes are in fine form and full of plenty of Pat Benatar-reminiscent angst. Granted, there's nothing here as catchy as Breakaway's cheery kiss-off, "Since U Been Gone," but both the lyrics and musical arrangements are more compelling: "One Minute" is a percolating, dance pop jam; "Hole" is rife with tight, rhythmic guitar riffs; and "Sober" is a haunting, acoustic guitar-assisted ballad. Thanks to her season of discontent, Clarkson blossoms from an American Idol darling to a rock 'n' roll angel.

Tracy E. Hopkins - Barnes & Noble



Clarkson's bleacher-reaching vocals and irrepressible pluck are hard to dislike...

Spin (p.94) - 3.5 stars out of 5



Clarkson's most vulnerable moments are accomplished and affecting - from the frisky pleadings of 'Can I Have a Kiss' to the near-suicidal despair of 'Irvine'.

Entertainment Weekly (p.135)
Grade: B+



Kelly Clarkson has said she wants My December to be like Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, because it's daring, uncommercial, uncompromising and . . . oh, come on. It's a Kelly Clarkson album, for fuck's sake. From the hoopla, you'd figure Kelly was playing free-jazz flugelhorn through her nose after drinking Justin Guarini's blood. It's cool that she's trying to write songs, but the tunes come up seriously short on choruses and heavy on the Alanis Morissette references. Her voice sags in low- energy drones like "One Minute" (feels like an hour), and "Don't Waste Your Time" (which has the album's best line: "Friend? What does that even mean?"). But "How I Feel" is the best New Wave lobster-rock goof since Cassie's "What Do U Want," and even at her tiredest, Kelly still makes you care about her - you just want to play "Since U Been Gone" for her and cheer her up.

ROB SHEFFIELD - Jul 2, 2007
Rolling Stone
 

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