Slowly Sinking Into Something Black

Kelly Clarkson “One Minute” – I can safely say that when I watched the first season of American Idol, I never considered the possibility that the girl who kept singing Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” would eventually embrace stadium rock, much less entertain the notion that she would ditch her penchant for melisma in favor of a sleek, intense style of emoting that is increasingly similar to that of Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker. I can totally understand why a music industry person with taste as horribly bland as that of Clive Davis would be worried about Kelly Clarkson’s new album My December — she’s taking cues from all sorts of bands who exist on the periphery of the mainstream, and backing away from anything that might go over well on an adult contemporary radio station. That said, it’s a terrifically accessible mainstream rock record, and the best songs transform indie/alt-rock sounds into full-on pop juggernauts. A lot of this type of bombastic pop music is carefully crafted to express or trigger some kind of massive emotion, and the singer doesn’t really have to do much other than go with the flow of the song, but Clarkson consistently invests her material with a potent humanity that can be exceptionally gutting. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: PRI’s Fair Game has a never nice studio session with A Sunny Day In Glasgow available for download as individual mp3s. The live version of the new song “Hugs and Kisses” is especially pretty.