Music
My December
Released: June 2007My December is without a doubt Kelly Clarkson's vision. It's the sound of a pop princess breaking her crown and not being afraid to tell the world exactly how that feels. "It's not about making people upset," she said, referring to taking creative control of her album. "It's about not settling. ... Nobody wants a sequel to Breakaway, because sequels are never as good as the first one." It's tempting to want to freeze our favorite singers in amber, to hold them to the sound that first captured our hearts. But Clarkson, especially given her background as the first star spawned by the hit-making machinery of "American Idol," has clearly staked her ground as an artist who has a vision she intends to see through to the end, regardless of whose feathers she ruffles.
She's also made it clear that she realizes that the more mature, aggressive sound of December might not make sense to those 10-year-olds who waved signs bearing her name during her "Idol" run five years ago, or even on her last tour. But with her third album, Clarkson lays bare that while she's the same singer you fell in love with, she's not the same person she was — and that to pretend otherwise would be dishonest to herself and to her fans.
