Season one of “Idol” was a full decade ago….
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[4.71]
Jonathan Bogart: The ne plus ultra of a Greatest Hits bonus track: celebratory, stock-taking, defiant. All of which has already been better done on the greatest hits.
[6]
Al Shipley: If Kelly’s discography spins an up-and-down metanarrative of “I’m happy, now I’m sad, now I’m happy again and learned something from the sadness” almost as explicitly as Mary J. Blige’s, this is somewhere on that emotional continuum between “Be Happy” and “Just Fine.” But not nearly as good as either of those.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: To the music industry, Kelly Clarkson and P!nk are now interchangeable, and thus we get the sequel to “Raise Your Glass”: “Raise Your Spirits.” Clarkson’s caught breath on the chorus betrays more engagement with the song than anything in the song itself.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Tepid verses, not even warmed up by some dodgy ’80s preset tinkles and trills, and a big “anthemic” chorus that is anything but. It’s far too musically weedy to be anything distinct — even some Guetta beats would have helped. Wasting an A+ voice on such D-grade material is a tragedy whose extent is only exacerbated on how she can imbue a little phrase like “this is my life” with grit and feeling, all the while reminding you of how show-stopping she can be.
[3]
Alfred Soto: This contest winner finds the poignance in “turning my cheek for the sake of the show” and “leaving footprints all over town.” It’s been a while since I heard a bizzer’s defense this forthright. Considering how many times she’s proven us wrong after peaking early, she might be right about how often we’ll see her in awards shows for the next fifteen years.
[5]
Brad Shoup: The candor in the verses induces a kind of guilt. Thank God the rom-com electro of the chorus takes things to a recognizably trite place. Surely the irony of wedding these lyrics to this disc-filling production was noted by this savvy crew?
[4]
Will Adams: That’s some God-awful drum programming, and I still can’t decide which part is the chorus. But despite the messiness and my view that career retrospectives as singles are among the most self-indulgent moves an artist can make, Kelly pulls it off.
[5]