KELLY CLARKSON

Meaning of Life Atlantic Records

What’s that great sound on Kelly Clarkson’s new album? It’s proud, it’s sexy, it’s funny.

Oh, yes, that’s the sound of freedom.

On Meaning of Life, her first album since leaving longtime home Sony, the former American Idol winner seems liberated, more soulful and less poppy.

“Thought I could never leave?” she sings on the terrific I Don’t Think About You, which is a breakup song that could easily apply to her former employers.

Her last album, 2015’s Piece by Piece, was almost mournful in contrast to the 14-track Meaning of Life, which is brimming with humour, sass and light. “I’m hotter than your mama’s supper, boy,” she teases in Whole Lotta Woman, a bluesy, foot-stomper that borrows the horn section from Earth, Wind & Fire and might steam up your mirrors. “Hold on tight little country boy/ I ain’t no girl/ I’m a boss with orders.”

From the boot-stomping Love So Soft to the concentrated emotion in Move You and the bluesy Cruel, Clarkson’s voice hasn’t sounded better, soaring into Christina Aguilera territory with its subtlety, twists and stamina.

There’s simply no filler on her eighth studio album, her first with Atlantic Records. It opens with a song fragment in which Clarkson begs for some down time, “a minute just for me.” Once that’s over, it’s just Clarkson unleashed.