My December Gets a Cold Shoulder

I know I'm WAY late with this, but I was waiting to get back on my own computer because I owe you guys MP3s. But without further stalling, yet another take on the much-anticipated new album from Kelly Clarkson, My December.

At this point I think just about everyone knows about the whole Clarkson-Clive Davis war of words, and more recently the firing of Clarkson's manager and the cancellation of her tour, all as a result of her insistence on writing the album herself.

I hate to say it, but Clive Davis might not have been too far off base. Most of the tracks on My December sound a little bit tired, almost as if Clarkson was just trying to emulate some formula for a hit single like "Since U Been Gone". Nothing on the album is inherently bad, it just falls well short of being the home-run shot fans are used to hearing. Tracks like the balls-to-the-wall "Never Again" and the more melancholy "Haunted" do indicate that Kelly Clarkson is not completely inept at songwriting. In fact, I think that if Clive Davis and RCA spent as much time trying to work with Clarkson to hone her writing ability and make her stuff better as they did trying to scrap the entire project, My December could have been the best Clarkson release to date. Tracks like the bland "Be Still" and "Judas" may not help her case, but despite what RCA wants you to believe, My December would be excellent were it Kelly Clarkson's debut album...which in a sense it is. Too bad we know that with help she's capable of better.

**1/2

Kelly Clarkson - Haunted

==TJ==