No mistaking Kelly Clarkson’s new ‘Meaning’
Pop star embraces soulful new sound
The old Kelly can’t come to the phone right now.
Why? Because she’s shaking off her pop-rock past and embracing a soulful new sound, one that loses the snarling guitars and anthemic choruses of breakout singles Since U Been Gone and Behind These Hazel Eyes and replaces them with horn blasts, pipe organ and Motown-inspired bass lines.
In the run-up to its release, Clarkson, 35, has frequently described Meaning of Life ( eeeE out of four) as the album she “always wanted to make.” It’s the American Idol champ’s first effort on Atlantic Records, having completed her multi-album deal with RCA Records, where she felt she compromised her artistic direction to appease a hit-hungry (mostly male) stable of label execs, songwriters and producers.
Meaning rebuffs that toxic masculine energy as the Grammy winner enlists female backup singers to imbue nearly every one of the 14 tracks with rich, girl-group harmonies. They immediately announce themselves on swaggering first single Love So Soft, which toes the line between sassy and sweet, and forgoes Clarkson’s usual belting for a staccato, chanted chorus about the kind of tenderness only she can offer.
Powerhouse pals in tow, Clarkson continues to radiate confidence on upbeat album highlights such as Didn’t I, a hip-shaking kiss-off to an ungrateful beau, and Medicine, which torches the very memory of him. Countryfried empowerment anthem Whole Lotta Woman shrewdly embraces the singer’s Texas roots as she uses food metaphors to brazenly shut down body-shamers (Among them: “I’m hotter than your mama’s supper, boy” and “I got what you want: sugar, honey, iced tea”).
Meaning occasionally wavers in its overblown first half. A Minute (Intro) and Heat are muddled attempts at fusing modern and retro sounds, while the jarring Move You (one of a handful of songs Clarkson didn’t co-write) awkwardly tries to be a sultry power ballad, gospel hymn and patriotic ode to the troops.
It’s when she dials back production and picks up the pen that Clarkson truly soars, referencing former first lady Michelle Obama’s “when they go low” speech on album closer Go High and channeling ’90s-era Mariah Carey on the R&B-flavored Would You Call That Love. The most rawly personal and vocally impressive entry is I Don’t Think About You, a stirring ballad about conviction and self-worth, whose lyrics resonate even louder after her breakup with RCA.
“After all that I’ve been through, nothing left to prove,” she sings. “No, no, no — I don’t think about you.”
Download: Didn’t I, Would You Call That Love, I Don’t Think About You