Kelly ClarksonOn the former American Idol winner’s final “contractually obligated pop album”, the music remains mostly shopping mall white noise. She’s still the peppy girl next door who everyone wants to hang out with, but while it’s easy to cheer the celebration of diverse love in Heartbeat Song’s video, or bounce along with Bad Reputation’s power-soul, the eagerness to move on to her forthcoming country music albums (her Second Wind) is palpable. Piece By Piece lumbers and lurches through a squalid mire of over-production that continues to suffocate an otherwise talented voice.
