This is Part II of my look at current music with strong ties to television. If you missed it, Part I was Aly and AJ. This time I look at Kelly Clarkson's new record.
After Ken Barne's writeup in USA Today, where he called My December hookless and sided with Clive Davis, I thought maybe Kelly Clarkson really had missed the mark.
After all I usually agree with Ken, and neither of us seem to be big fans of the pop music mogul.
Clive and I also have a little bit of history. Back in the early eighties a group of us were trying to get Arista to reissue the original Monkees albums. Arista had inherited the Monkees catalog when they absorbed Colgems records and at the time Clive was the head of Arista. I wrote Clive a letter outlining the plan for the reissue of the records. It contained statistics of the continuing popularity of the Monkees, and pointed out how well the Arista Monkees Greatest Hits had sold.
A couple of weeks later Clive sent me a letter saying that they really weren't interested in doing anything with the Monkees since he saw no future in them as a band. I still have the letter tucked into a copy of Clive's book Inside the Record Business. That letter is folded in with an article from Rolling Stone. You see Clive was wrong. Shortly after he dismissed me, we convinced Rhino Records to take over where Arista would not. Shortly thereafter The Monkees embarked on a 2oth Anniversary tour which became the number one tour of 1986. They also charted seven albums simultaneously (a Billboard record) and had a top twenty single (on Arista). Arista quickly reissued another greatest hits LP which also sold over a million copies.
The point of all this is of course, sometimes Clive is wrong.
With Kelly's album he is wrong, but he is right.
My December is not a bad album as the press would have you believe, and I found it very reminiscent of Pat Benatar. It's a mixture of solid rockers and ballads showcasing Kelly's best instrument, her voice. Beginning to end the album flows well and as I played it at maximum volume in the backyard yesterday while I washed the car, it made a great summertime soundtrack. Some of my favorite tracks are One Minute, Don't Waste Your Time, How I Feel and Can I Have a Kiss. All four of those songs would have gotten airplay in the glory days of FM radio.
That said, Clive is right about one thing. There is no obvious single. As much as I love Never Again, the rock vibe and Kelly's lyrics put a lot of people off. The second single, Sober, would have been a top ten single if it had followed an airplay smash. Unfortunately that didn't happen and Sober is currently dying at radio. Having given up on the first track, and apparently listening to all the bad press, the radio programmers aren't giving the album much of a chance.
The other problem is, unlike Chris Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson is getting no support from the rock community. Despite the fact that she is making better rock than most of her female peers, no one is stepping up to recognize her. This is too bad. That's how artists grow and no one is helping her out.
Ken Barnes made another comment in his writeup of My December. He called it a very depressing album. Much of the CD focuses on relationships gone bad, but is this unusual? Isn't lost love one of the most common themes in music?
Still, the damage is done and without a big single, Kelly's record is headed for a quick fade from the charts.
With two songs in the discard bin, what's the next potential track?
I don't think any of the other ballads are going to carry this record, that leaves the uptempo rock tracks.
Of these, How I Feel, is the most commercial. It has a little bit of a techno feel and bounces along in a hard pop style. If RCA and Clive would get behind this song it could be a hit.
That brings up my last point. Clearly, Clive is NOT behind this record. RCA may be claiming to support the CD, but I'm not seeing it. Clive Davis seems content to let his top artist die on the vine to teach her a lesson. This is pretty stupid because I don't think Kelly cares. I think Kelly Clarkson would leave RCA and go indie before she'd give in to Clive.
This is too bad. As I've said before, and I'll say it again, we need more women in rock. The void is there, someone needs to fill it.
'til Clive listens to the lyrics of Barracuda (I'm sure Clive doesn't like Heart either)
Keep the Adventure Alive,
@Adventuretom
Johnny Cash returned to number one on the Billboard album charts this week. Not just the Country chart either, he sits atop the big one.