New Kelly Clarkson single "Never Again"

[koganbot]

New Kelly Clarkson single "Never Again" is posted on her MySpace. I would say "holy fuck" but it's exactly what I expected: like the dark tracks on Breakaway but louder.

Comments

[getbacknow.livejournal.com]

Very Alanis.

[koganbot]

Well, I can hear that, but this is more of a guitar onslaught than Alanis has ever done; and Alanis always sounds inordinately proud of herself whenever she let loose with a zinger, while Kelly just sounds like she's trying to claw through walls. The chorus here doesn't quite live up to the drama of the verse - Eppy says over on the teenpop thread that "the chorus sounds a little too much like recent dour hard rock stuff"; I don't mind the dourness, but she needs more space in which to take her swings. And the lyrics do go after standard villainy, the guy who throws her over for a trophy wife. This is still easily one of the best singles I've heard this year, and I love how her voice can be dark and thick even on the high pitch. "Maybe," which she's previewed live, is even better.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

I like it more now that I'm not expecting a Since You Been Gone feeling. It does sound a lot more desperate, and that's nice.

[koganbot]

Have you ever heard Kelly's "Hear Me"? That's the best of her previous desperation songs, my second favorite Kelly track after "Since U Been Gone." Has her screaming to the universe. I also love Avril's "Unwanted," which has the same desperation and same density of guitar (and same guitarist/producer/co-writer, Clif Magness) as "Hear Me." I don't know the writing credits on "Never Again," though Wikipedia lists the producer as David Kahne, who according to Wiki has done many and varied pop things (Bangles, Sublime, McCartney, Sugar Ray).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Pop J Harvey!

(I'm not sure if it's reminding me of that exactly - it's ringing a lot of old indie bells though, particularly in the echoey breakdowns - PJ, a little Throwing Muses, a little Wedding Present.)

(Also that recent Good Charlotte single - similar claustophobia except KC is more shut in)

Really like it, more than I expected to on prior descriptions.

[koganbot]

I definitely hear PJ similarities, though Kelly's what PJ would sound like if Polly Jean had a bigger voice and could give up the cow that she's constantly trying to have. I'd say that "Never Again" has plenty of goth and metal in the way that its chords congeal. That was going on in several tracks from her last album, too.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

The pre-chorus sounds like the good part of a Sleater-Kinney song. I like it. A lot.

Kat reckons the chorus is v.Fleetwood Maccish, and I can hear that too. It's the bass and the 'woos'.

[koganbot]

I hear Evanescence, also, which may be the lingering influence of Moody and Hodges (for all I know the song is about Hodges, which is what a Wiki writer claimed about "Hazel Eyes"; though maybe the lyrics to "Never Again" are just there to give her something to scream).

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

The guitar at the beginning is quite Lindsay Buckingham, too. It's the drums that sound like S-K (much more than Throwing Muses). Don't like it much, mind.

[(Anonymous)]

I hear a lot of My Vitriol in this.

[koganbot]

Nia reports over on the rolling teenpop thread:

"Never Again" is about Hodges, Frank. There are apparently a lot of references that I'm not enough of a fan to understand--she burned one of his letters onstage, he said it sucks to see her face everywhere, etc.

I totally hear Lindsey Buckingham on that guitar now that someone's said something. But mostly "Never Again" reminds me of Shakira's "Don't Bother." "I would never wish bad things, but I don't wish you well" always gets "She went to private school, she speaks perfect French" stuck in my head, and it bugs me every time that they turn out to be different melodies.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

If Brody Dalle had a higher voice, methinks.