Stronger : Deluxe Version

Rolling Stone (p.84) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "STRONGER is as deft as any Clarkson album, with 13 catchy songs that hover between pop rock, R&B and Nashville -- all of them showcases for one of music's most remarkable voices." Spin (p.69) - "[S]he delivers tunes like 'Einstein' and the disco-glam title track with a country singer's earthy conviction." Entertainment Weekly (p.70) - "[I]t's the perfect time for STRONGER, Clarkson's older-better-tougher-smarter album." -- Grade: B+

No longer needing to reassure her label and fickle fans in the wake of her wild detour My December, Kelly Clarkson settles into her skin on Stronger. Using 2009’s All I Ever Wanted as a rough template, Clarkson is nevertheless willing to dip back to the beginning of her career for skyscraping, crowd-pleasing power ballads, but she’s assuredly not retreating. Kelly lives in the modern world, and quite cannily so, at times co-opting Rihanna and Katy Perry while also making room for a duet with country hunk Jason Aldean, all the while never seeming as if she’s desperately chasing different demographics. Nevertheless, Stronger certainly has something for anybody who has ever loved Kelly: she belts out the show-stopper “Standing in Front of You,” then turns around for a blast of furious pop-punk in “I Forgive You”; she even dips her toe into brooding My December territory on “The War Is Over,” then pushes into the brilliantly dense pop of “Let Me Down”; and she cheerfully gets tough on the girl power anthems “Einstein” and “Don’t Be a Girl About It” (the latter only on the deluxe edition). Certainly, part of the variety is down to the multitude of producers and writers on Stronger, but the album’s success is entirely due to Kelly Clarkson, whose personality and professionalism turn it into her best album since her Breakaway breakthrough in 2004. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

“What Doesn't Kill You"の冒頭30秒だけで一気に持っていかれ、背筋ゾクゾク。だが本気で壮絶なのはこの後で、思わず拳を握りしめながらケリーの心の叫びと同化していた。アルバム全編で貫かれているのは、アラニス・モリセットの初作『Alanis』にも通じる〈不幸の膿み出しセラピー〉。とはいえ、それを幸薄女の遠吠えと呼ぶなかれ。時に叫び、罵り、ツッパリ、強がり、皮肉り、せせら笑い、再起を決意し、多様な心情を歌に込めてしまう表現力には恐れ入るしかない。そんじょそこらのロック・シンガーよりも数倍の説得力を持っているし、それを一級品のポップソングとして仕立て上げられたのは、グレッグ・カースティンやブライアン・ケネディらの手柄も大きいはずだ。間違いなく最高傑作。
bounce (C)村上ひさし