Lost in the hype over hits

It's not the actual content of "My December," Kelly Clarkson's just-released third album, that currently makes it unlistenable. I'm not saying that it's a bad album -- it's a solid, heartfelt, occasionally beautiful exercise in mainstream modern rock, and most reviews are confirming that. "My December" is unlistenable in the sense that nobody can really hear it. Sometimes this happens to a work of art: The din around it from a controversy renders the thing itself mute.

By Ann Powers

June 26, 2007