my life would suck without you

hold your horses... this is the title of the first single off kelly clarkson's lates cd "all i ever wanted."

i am not really a fan of kelly clarkson. and im not really a big fan of commercial top 40 songs. but there are a few of her songs that i like. and that was when her music started to evolve into the pop/rock genre. if there's one thing that i like about her music is that she mostly doesnt sing about cheesy, saccharine-coated love songs. instead she sings about doomed relationship and the pain and the struggle to move on that go along with it. songs like 'because of you', 'behind these hazel eyes,' 'never again', among others. much like alanis morissette (lyrically, in some ways), only more PG as opposed to alanis' somtimes R rated, sometimes blasphemous lyrics. (hey, that's how i see it. no judgement or anything).

when kelly traded her semi-gothic, semi-melacholic portrait in her album "my december" to a bright, almost bubblegum image in her latest release, i thought she's trying to follow no doubt's gwen stephani who went sexy-pop when she went solo. but when i heard her first single, i realized the american idol lass still rocks. out of desperation to get a pop/rock album that would be uplifting musically, i bought her cd despite the fact that i still dont like the album cover and the cd jacket in general. the disc is surpringly pleasurable. it's actually my present guilty pleasure of sort.

the song 'all i ever wanted' is one of my most favorite, along with 'if i cant have you' with the self-destructive chorus "if i cant have you... i dont want anyone. if i cant have you... then only damage has been done." ouch!

and let's face it... she's got really awesome voice. although she didnt stretch her voice to its full potential here just like with 'behind these hazel eyes.' it's still a good work of art, the album. just dont let the album cover discourage you. after all, you really cant judge a record by it's album cover...