In 2002, Americas newly minted idol stood in front of a rapt TV audience and delivered a stunned, ecstatic rendition of the cloud nine coronation song A Moment Like This.
Fifteen years, three Grammys, and a pile of gold and platinum later, all the girl from Fort Worth with the Texas-size range wants onMeaning of Lifes soulful, slow-rolling intro is literally A Minute just for me…just to breathe.
She manages to eke out 70 seconds, actually, but nearly every song on Kelly Clarksons eighth studio album serves as a record and reflection of the life she lives now: a 35-year-old superstar and mother of four (including two stepchildren); a defiant champion ofher prerogative to change sounds and labels midstream; a grown-ass woman, in her own words, whos earned the right to have her music mark exactly where shes at.
Credit: Vincent Peters
The intimate, R&B-drenchedMeaningcircles those themes with a new kind of confidence, swinging from breezy finger-snap seduction on lead single Love So Soft to full surrender on the smitten, take-me-to-church title track and the tender retro swoon Cruel.
Shes also not above calling out an unreliable man on bouncy rebukes like Didnt I and Would You Call That Love, evoking Michelle Obamas cheek-turning wisdom on Go High, or extolling the PG-13 virtues of a bigger girl on the warm-biscuits-and-wide-hips celebration Whole Lotta Woman.
As cohesive and self-assured as this collection feels,Meaningdoesnt seem especially interested in scaling the heights of early smashes like Since U Been Gone or Because of You.
Instead, it swings low and sweet a refreshingly real dispatch from an artist expressing exactly what she feels in this moment, and nothing less.
