Kelly Was Right
Guide Rating - 4 1/2 Stars

Kelly Clarkson's third solo album My December is a celebration of what can happen when a top pop artist demands creative freedom. The album crackles with artistic commitment to the songs at hand. Clarkson has never been in better voice than she is here. The majority of the songs speak of pain, anger, and self-doubt, but Kelly Clarkson also provides enough hopeful material to point to an emotionally brighter future.
An Edgy Distillation of Clarkson's Talents

Despite all of the speculative press coverage of music going off the deep end, dedicated Kelly Clarkson fans should not fear My December. The 2 best songs from her album Breakaway, the rocking "Since U Been Gone" and painful ballad "Because of You," are ample preparation for the new album's material. However, there is an energy and fire here not yet seen from Kelly Clarkson on record. A significant amount of credit for the new sound must be given to veteran producer David Kahne who has also given new life to Paul McCartney's music on the current album Memory Almost Full.

My December kicks off with the single "Never Again" which sounds almost like a powerful sequel to the sentiments of "Since U Been Gone." The intensity fails to let up through the 80's style pop-rock energy of "One Minute" and the slightly psychedelic-influenced rock of "Hole." A bit further on in the album, the ghost of "Because of You" is conjured up for the voices of "Haunted."
Melody Is Not Left Behind

With all of the reports of concern from record company executives like Clive Davis that My December would be lacking in guaranteed hits, some Clarkson followers feared that melody may be left behind in favor of noise and intensity. Those concerns can be laid to rest. The melodic "Be Still" is one of the most gorgeous ballads Kelly Clarkson has yet recorded. The poppy chorus of "Don't Waste Your Time" will have listeners signing along in no time, and, despite the power, "Never Again" is irresistibly catchy.
Top Tracks on My December

* Never Again
* Hole
* Sober
* Haunted
* Be Still
* Irvine

The Introduction of Kelly Clarkson, the Artist

It took 3 albums, but it appears that we've finally been introduced to Kelly Clarkson, the artist. The influence of the venom in Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill is obvious. However, it also sounds like Clarkson has internalized the pure beauty of Sarah McLachlan's voice on the gorgeous "Be Still." In the quieter moments of her singing, Kelly Clarkson raises goosebumps.

In interviews, Clarkson spoke of the importance of telling a story through the course of an album. My December tells a story of anger, pain, and isolation, but it also tells about possible paths out of that pit. "Maybe" poignantly states "I won't stop, 'cause I believe." By the time the album closes with the riveting questioning of God on "Irvine," you certainly will not want Kelly Clarkson to stop either...and you will believe.



I got this review from: http://top40.about.com/od/albums/fr/mydecember.htm

Looks like Kelly will be fine!

Source: http://top40.about.com/od/albums/fr/mydecember.htm
Link: N/A

This album is amazing.

This review is totally right!
I'd switch "Irvine" and "Be STill" with "Maybe" and "Judas" on the best track list!

I love this album now.

I got my copy today

Glad she got a good review there, Kelly really deserves a lot of success with this album... hope she can get it!

It's a good album, but I prefer Breakaway.

Same. There's no radio friendly songs on it too...disappointing. It's a good CD though, I recommend it.

I LOVE IT better than Breakaway!!

Just bought it, I hope it's good!

Irvine and Chivas sound great ! I love them

Irvine and Chivas sound great ! I love them

WHOOO go kelly!!!!

This is such an amazing album! Every song!

where's the rest of the reviews?

Here's from Entertainment Weekly...


B+

Are you on Team Kelly or Team Clive? It seems like everybody chose sides before even hearing My December, Kelly Clarkson's darker, more personal, riskier third CD. There are those who see her as a bird escaping a gilded cage, co-writing her entire album and bravely forsaking the hitmakers Clive Davis assigned to 2004's five-times-platinum Breakaway. Others view Clarkson as a spoiled brat, so impressed by her success that she's telling the industry's most established father figure to take a hike.

Recent management changes and her canceled tour have furthered the assumption that December must be a train wreck. It's not. There's real artistry blossoming on this, the boldest and best effort ever by an Idol star.

That's not to say that Davis was off his rocker when he purportedly didn't hear a hit, because the disc does lack even half as obvious a smash as ''Since U Been Gone.'' There was subversive fun to be had in witnessing America's sweetheart using ''Never Again,'' the he-done-me-wrong first single, to reinvent herself as a banshee (wishing gangrene on an enemy, no less). But she's not playing to her strengths when paying pissy homage to Jagged Little Pill, even if she is channeling Alanis Morissette by way of the octave-spanning Pat Benatar.

Where Clarkson hits us with her best shot is in the confessionals in which she ditches the blame game and draws her own blood. She's not as close to catching up with her songwriting idol, Patty Griffin, as she is to her belter heroine, Benatar. Nonetheless, 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.'' If you ever wondered what Sarah McLachlan would sound like with an extra set of lungs, check out ''Maybe''; it's a great slow build of a ballad in which Clarkson fantasizes about how the guy who got away would really understand her, if only she had another chance. The sentiment reeks of desperation, but with vocal willpower this indomitable, you're surprised her ex hasn't been sucked into the studio by song's end.

But just when you think Miss Independent has morphed into Miss Misery, Clarkson unleashes some lighter pleasures that (take note, Team Clive!) would make dandy warm-weather singles — much more than ''Never Again'' or ''Sober,'' the moody second release. ''One Minute'' percolates with electro-pop energy; ''How I Feel'' is a one-woman new-wave revival; and the funk-rock ''Yeah'' suggests that she's an R&B sex bomb waiting to happen. Still, basking in the winter of My December's greater discontent isn't such a bad way to chill this summer, either. B+

DOWNLOAD THIS: Can I Have A Kiss

Unfortunately, this review isn't as positive, but I'm just putting them on for you all to read. I don't agree with this review from the New York Post, but hey, I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion.


New York Post
Rating: 2 out of 4 Stars

June 24, 2007 -- After the Page Six stories about the power struggles surrounding Kelly Clarkson's third record, "My December" - from Clive Davis' demand that it be less rock and more pop to her summer tour going kaput - the album finally arrives Tuesday without a hitch. After listening, you have to wonder what all the bitching was about. It's hardly the worst CD an American Idol has released (that dubious honor goes to Taylor Hicks). As Simon might say, "December" is "just OK."

Since the CD doesn't have a bunch of great songs, and Clarkson's voice isn't all that memorable, there's little to draw you back for a second listen. That said, this album will please Kelly's built-in fan base because it breaks no new ground and is a clear continuation of her generic Patty Smyth-Pat Benatar pop-rock style. There's even a dose of deja vu in "Hole," which echoes with the industrial style Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody brought to her last disc.

Because this record is more of the same, you can't help being suspicious that her spat with RCA was merely manufactured edge, straight out of the "American Idol" playbook.

It should be noted Clarkson wrote the lyrics to all 13 tracks. So this is a personal record. What we learn about K.C. is she's been double-crossed in love and she's pissed. She tries to pull heartstrings in songs that boo-hoo about losing in love, but Clarkson is most convincing when she's angry like in the single "Never Again." "My December" does have a couple of sugary radio-ready songs, but it's the joyous secular gospel of "Yeah" that almost gets under your skin.

Download: "Yeah"


Kelly will still do great on the charts this week!

Critics’ Choice
New CDs

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 25, 2007

KELLY CLARKSON
“My December”
(RCA)

At the end of the new Kelly Clarkson album it finally arrives: a song worth all the fuss. It’s called “Irvine,” and it’s a gentle prayer, sweetened by a strummed guitar, a ghostly hint of pedal steel and (every now and then) a digitized string section. Her voice breathy and soft, the edges rounded by vibrato, Ms. Clarkson beseeches the Almighty: “Are you there watching me?/As I lie here on this floor.”

And after the events of the last few weeks one half-expects a booming reply: “This is Clive Davis. Yes, I’m here. Now get up.”

Until recently Ms. Clarkson seemed to have nothing but fans. In 2002 she won the first “American Idol”; in 2003 she released a successful debut, “Thankful”; in 2004 she returned with “Breakaway,” which has sold nearly six million copies in America. Her biggest hit, “Since U Been Gone,” has become one of this decade’s defining pop songs: a glorious blast of bubblegum emo.

Then came word that executives at her label, RCA, weren’t happy with her new music, and soon the disagreement went public. There were reports that Mr. Davis, the old-school impresario who runs RCA (and who won a Grammy as a producer of “Breakaway”), was dissatisfied with the songs, which Ms. Clarkson helped to write; he conspicuously declined to clear the air. She talked in interviews about being a young woman in an industry run by old men. She fired her manager. She canceled her summer tour because of slow ticket sales.

All that over this? “Irvine” aside, “My December” isn’t a shocking change of direction, though it’s also not very good. Now, as then, she sings petulant lyrics over computer-enhanced electric guitars. “Never Again,” the first single, was a loud and bitter breakup song; “Sober,” the current one, builds slowly to a hard-won conclusion: “Three months and I’m still sober.”

This melancholy is welcome, as it was before; what’s missing is the sense of fun that turned her old hits (even the accusatory ballad “Because of You”) into karaoke favorites. There are no collaborations with Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the pop scientists who wrote and produced “Since U Been Gone.” Instead of soaring, Ms. Clarkson digs in, singing melodies that sometimes sound cramped and repetitive; perhaps the music echoes the obstinate lyrics too well. Let’s not get carried away, though: Ms. Clarkson’s voice still sounds great, and there are a few songs that conjure the old giddiness, like “How I Feel,” a new-wavey lament. And all the controversy has made Ms. Clarkson even easier to admire. But as Mr. Davis (who seems happy to play the villain) knows better than anyone, support and sympathy don’t turn an album into a blockbuster; big hits do. Everyone’s rooting for Ms. Clarkson, but that’s no guarantee she’ll win.


Another So-So Review, but Kelly is still much more than just the best 'Idol.' She's a true musician and that counts much more than how many hit makers you can find to put on your record!

December To Remember
Kelly Clarkson shows continued growth on latest album
June 27th, 2007 • 3:52 PM

Kelly Clarkson

Overall rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Rock & Roll has never been a genre that placed heavy emphasis on vocal ability. True, there have been some fantastic singers in rock history, but some of the most successful acts in the genre have been men and women that can hardly carry a tune, their success instead stemming from songwriting talent and an ability to craft an image that is uniquely their own. Perhaps it is for this reason that America is so enthralled with Kelly Clarkson. Here we have a young woman who has managed to find her own unique niche on the musical landscape, eschewing an early emphasis on her pop roots (American Idol is not exactly the new CBGB) in exchange for a more comfortable edginess that allows her to expand her range of subject matter. However, at the heart of all of these significant image decisions, we still have one indisputable fact: The girl has some serious vocal pipes. She proved as much performing on live television for months on end and winning over American television audiences with her talent. In essence, she represents a unique intersection of ability and image. It is the synergy of these two aspects of the music artist that acts as the goal of My December, Clarkson’s third album. Where Thankful introduced her vocal abilities, and Breakaway highlighted the image that Clarkson had wanted for her career all along, My December seeks to find balance between the two, and it is a balancing act that, when executed correctly, shows Clarkson as a singularly gifted artist.

Certainly, the balance is struck in several places on the album, and the results often are of the caliber of Clarkson’s best efforts at such synergy to date. The album’s opener, “One Minute,” is an uptempo pop-rock affair that deftly combines dance rock rhythms with female rocker angst, and is sure to become the windows-down driving anthem of recently broken up teenage girls everywhere. It follows the blueprint of “Since You’ve Been Gone,” easily Clarkson’s best combination of rock image and vocal talent. Elsewhere, “Sober,” the album’s second single, solidifies the young woman’s chops as a balladeer, building a sole guitar rhythm into a cavalcade of plucked strings, with the singer somberly, beautifully comparing leaving a lover behind to the struggle of maintaining sobriety from a drug. Kelly even manages to continue evolving her image as an artist, with tracks like “Maybe” and “Yeah” both allowing some country influence to creep into the music, and it is an influence that seems to come naturally to the artist, perhaps owing to her Texas upbringing, with the sound coming off as something of a more talented vocally gifted, youth oriented Bonnie Raitt; it is a blend of sweetness and sadness that may just change the country genre more than artists who are singularly focused on that genre alone. In all of these above instances, and in several other places on the album, Clarkson manages to seamlessly blend identity and ability, even as she continues to evolve as an artist. It is this daring, the bold declaration that she is, in fact, something truly special in music, as opposed to just a perception or a talented singer, that drives the high points of My December.

Conversely, it is a lack of daring that highlights the album’s low points. The failures here are not purely sonic in nature; Clarkson is far too talented a vocalist for that to be the case. Rather, the cardinal sin for an artist attempting to do what Clarkson is on My December is to be boring, leaning too heavily on image or talent, rather than attempting to synthesize both. As such, efforts such as “Hole,” where Clarkson sacrifices her astounding vocal range in favor of projecting a gritty, angst-ridden tone come off as forced and inorganic; there are other artists who pull off the “angry girl with a microphone” act more convincingly. On the other hand, when Clarkson relies solely on her voice, the results are equally uninspiring. “Be Still,” for example, comes off as a sappy pop ballad, with the artist coming off as a blank, cookie cutter singer. There are a million great singers in the world, and for Clarkson to come off as just another voice in a sea of aspiring artists diminishes her strides as an artist with her own image and sonic brand. For better or for worse, Clarkson has chosen to walk something of a sonic tightrope with this album, and the unfortunate consequence of this decision is that one wrong step, one false note or unnatural decision with her sound, results in something that can only be a failure; there is no middle ground.

And yet the beauty of this tightrope walk is that listening to Clarkson succeed in achieving the artistic homeostasis that lays at the heart of My December, which she certainly accomplishes for the bulk of the album, leaves the listener with a unique experience. Success for Clarkson is more than just pleasant to listen to; it is exciting. The album, much like Breakaway, shows a continual growth in Clarkson’s sound, and music like lead single “Never Again,” (see below) which may be the album’s most well executed blend of image and vocal talent, suggests that America’s television audience may have helped launch more than just a great singer. We may have helped discover a star. My December proves what American Idol and “Since You’ve Been Gone” only hinted at, and that is the awe-inspiring potential of Kelly Clarkson as an artist, not just a brand or a vocalist.

http://www.giantmag.com/2007/06/musi...r-to-remember/

This isnt really a review of the album, but i still love this article.

Kelly Clarkson's dispute with Clive Davis has made her music hard to hear
My December' faces a kind of prejudice.
By Ann Powers, Times Staff Writer
June 26, 2007


It's not the actual content of "My December," Kelly Clarkson's just-released third album, that currently makes it unlistenable. I'm not saying that it's a bad album — it's a solid, heartfelt, occasionally beautiful exercise in mainstream modern rock, and most reviews are confirming that. "My December" is unlistenable in the sense that nobody can really hear it. Sometimes this happens to a work of art: The din around it from a controversy renders the thing itself mute.

At least the dust-up is about the work itself, not how many kids somebody has adopted or a political aside made on a foreign concert stage long ago. But the way it's playing out in the hype-dominated, expert-laden, power-obsessed culture of celebrity says something truly depressing about the limits of pop as art, and as democratic expression.

That's not just because Clarkson, a multiplatinum moneymaker, is having to wage an undignified war with her record label over creative control. Artists have struggled with "the man" since the days of royal patronage; many have had face-offs with veteran star maker Clive Davis, the particular man clashing with Clarkson. (Davis, chairman of the BMG Label Group, didn't hear a hit on "My December" and wanted Clarkson to rework it with the "professional songwriters" he credits for her success.)

What's grim is the way the drama has played out in public. Since the disagreement surfaced this spring, the main question posed has been, "Will 'My December' have hits?" Such speculation is reasonable from a business point of view — RCA, like every major label, expects huge sales from its top artists to offset losses accrued as the music industry continues to melt down. But that it has become a matter of general fascination reflects the winner-take-all mentality afflicting American culture and diminishing its arts.

Popularity is hip right now. From the shift in the independent music underground epitomized by Paris Hilton dancing onstage at Coachella with Cansei De Ser Sexy, a Brazilian band signed to Nirvana's former label Sub Pop and by a mainstream transfixed by the voting process on "American Idol," we care who wins. We care who wins so much that once the victory is accomplished, questions of whether it was deserved or how it was accomplished become almost gauche.

I'm interested in what's popular, but I think we all need to take a breather and remember that instant and unwavering commercial success doesn't necessarily denote artistic genius. It certainly can, but just as often success comes from a great marketing plan, a lucky hook or stealing someone else's game. And for an artist to grow over a creative lifetime — let's call it that for once, instead of always referring to "careers" — she needs to take side roads and make mistakes.

The fascination with Clarkson's possible slip in commercial viability equates her value as an artist (and as a person, since her assertiveness has been read by some as petulance and egotism) with record sales. Even her defenders feel obligated to suggest which tracks might become hit singles, as if the only way to appreciate "My December" is to imagine a way to salvage it.

The idea that this music might have a great effect on a smaller audience or that it's a valuable step in the evolution of someone whose talent should make for many fine albums pales next to betting on Clarkson like a prized racehorse.

The Clarkson affair reminds us that even our most popular artists don't have that much freedom once they're ensconced in the game. Mavericks such as Kanye West and the White Stripes are rare. Most big sellers dutifully (or reluctantly) play along, approximating whatever worked last time to claw their way back onto the charts. It's hard to blame artists for this; look at the viciousness thathas greeted commercial less-than-successes such as Liz Phair.

This mess also, frankly, reeks of sexism. Casting Clarkson as a deluded ingénue and Davis as a father figure gone ballistic — not to mention the inevitable speculation about her weight — conceals other relevant issues. "My December" is a rock record, but rock radio plays barely any female artists. And there's a history of women trying to evolve and facing resistance: consider Lauryn Hill, Joan Osborne, Macy Gray, Paula Cole, even Sheryl Crow. Men experiment and they're applauded, or at least indulged; women do so and it's assumed that a boyfriend has led them astray.

The release of "My December" should have been a time of celebration for Clarkson; instead, it's a difficult moment, one that this strong and gifted performer will likely overcome. But she's not the only one who should be sad at how it's all gone down. Everyone who loves pop music needs to feel a bit chagrined about this one and try next time to do as another often-besmirched pop star, George Michael, once advised: listen without prejudice.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...ack=crosspromo

I've always been very vocal about how much I despise Kelly Clarkson and her music, but even I have to admit that My December really does have it's moments. It does fall severely short in some spots, but there are several good, if not great, songs on it. I really can't understand what all the fuss was about. I predict this album will go 2x platinum. Clive just overreacted--there are songs on here that are vaguely similar to those of Evanescence or even Breakaway-era Kelly. It's not like it's a complete snoozefest.