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).