If you’re a pop star, it’s fine to take big stylistic risks and make deeply personal statements in your music, as long as the gamble pays off. Following Kelly Clarkson’s hugely popular 2004 sophomore album Breakaway, she took a substantial chance with 2007’s My December, writing mostly with her touring band, embracing a darker rock sound and penning angst-filled lyrics about doomed relationships.
Had December been a huge hit, we might now be listening to the next step in Clarkson’s musical evolution, an even more personal and diverse collection of songs. Instead, December is widely considered a failure, so what we get from Clarkson’s fourth album, All I Ever Wanted, is a return to the safety of proven pop hitmakers, songs already road-tested via other artists and vaguely empowering lyrics about love and independence.
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That’s not a problem, per se—Breakaway was built on exactly those elements, and it’s one of the best pop records of the last 10 years. But Wanted can’t help but feel like a retreat, an admission of defeat. It opens with single “My Life Would Suck Without You,” courtesy of Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the folks behind Clarkson’s biggest hit, “Since U Been Gone,” and from there proceeds through contributions from a who’s-who of pop writer-producers. Two of the songs are cast-offs from flavor of the month Katy Perry.
Whatever the source, Clarkson sings the hell out of every one of these songs. She runs circles around the vapid Perry on the extremely catchy “I Do Not Hook Up”; blasts her way through the album’s two best songs, upbeat rockers “Whyyawannabringmedown” and the title track; and damn near turns “Suck” into the next “Since U Been Gone.” She can’t quite save odious OneRepublic mastermind Ryan Tedder’s three whiny, insipid ballads, but he does deserve credit for contributing the slinky, disco-fied “If I Can’t Have You.”
Clarkson remains a phenomenal singer, and despite its inconsistencies, Wanted is a better-than-average pop album. But after the glimpse of her capacity for so much more, it still represents a big step backward.
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