Idle American Digs Canadian Music

Hire the right people, and you get quality stuff. Kelly Clarkson's second album abandons teen R&B for teen rock with the help of Avril Lavigne of all people. It's not quite heartwarming, but it's somewhere between Tiny Tim piping up and a Jerry Springer Final Thought to know that Avril's matured enough to sell her stuff to a pop star. Wife-beater-and-tie Avril would have spit at the very notion. The rest of the stuff comes from the kooky guy who quit Evanescence, and it sounds like it. That's fine by me. It means nice choruses like the one on "Since U Been Gone". Yeah, I know. I was hoping to hear her cover some Rainbow, like I was so hoping Christina would cover "I Wanna Be Your Dog" during her I'm-a-worthless-skank phase. But, this is fine.

In songs like this, the verse could be her grocery list. It simply doesn't matter what she mumbles on the way to the chorus. So, the album wears thin after a few songs where the chorus consists of her wailing on one note for two beats or more. But she flips the formula on "Gone", where the verse is the more interesting thing with its stuttering clip. I'll be keen to hear a remix of this one, or maybe a mashup with "Since U Been Gone". Between the two, there's a really outstanding pop song.

I know Kelly Clarkson's artistic evolution is not the stuff of blogs, but what can I say? Peep the header, and then console yourself with some Mates of State: "What I Could Stand For" or "The Kissaway"


And if the Clarkson still stings, wash it down with Animal Collective's "Who Could Win a Rabbit"