What does Kelly Clarkson’s eighth studio album sound like? I’m going to let her answer that question: “What if Aretha [Franklin] was born now and made a record today?”
Meaning of Life is Clarkson’s first album since leaving RCA, the label where she’d spent her entire career. Her newfound professional freedom finds her embracing a soul-meets-gospel vibe that’s a far cry from her pop-rock anthems of the past.
Clarkson acknowledges the stylistic shift is risky. “It definitely is still a harder sell than ‘Since U Been Gone 2.0,'” she told the New York Times. But the 35-year-old married mother of two said, “I wanted to make a record that I could really sing the [expletive] out of.” Indeed, Clarkson’s huge voice fills the 14 tracks on this album, songs that sway thematically between exalting the power of love and lamenting when it sometimes goes missing.
The title track celebrates love’s ability to provide light, hope and courage: “When you hold me, I finally see/ … I was broke down, so alone in the dark/Until you showed me the light/… You lift me up.” Gospel-esque “Move You” longs to impact her beloved’s heart: “Like a sunrise on a mountain/I wanna move you like that/ … Like a solemn hallelujah/Like a choir shouts, ‘Amen!/ … I wanna move you like that.” “Whole Lotta Woman” namechecks Tina Turner and brims with self-confidence.
“Love So Soft” longs for security and permanence: “But I need, need to know/Will you protect me, respect me if I let you close?” Later, Clarkson adds, “If you want this love, got to hold it tight/Never let it go, baby, let it give you life.” “Slow Dance” clearly establishes firm physical boundaries: “I’m not goin’ home with you tonight/But you can hold my hand/And we can take it slow.”
“Heat” challenges a guy whose romantic attentiveness has grown dull to up his game: “You used to make me feel like a diamond/Now it don’t even seem like you’re tryin’/ … So, come on, love me/Better than that.” “Didn’t I” also contrasts levels of commitment in a tough relationship, with Clarkson insisting that she’s given everything she’s got to make it work.
“Medicine,” meanwhile, finds the singer playing the part of a woman who’s decided to cut her romantic losses, telling her ex, “I ain’t even thinkin’ ’bout you/ … You ain’t my medicine.” We get almost a word-for-word reprise of that idea in “I Don’t Even Think About You,” in which Clarkson also says her hardships helped her mature: “I feel freedom where I stand now/ … I love the woman that I became.” “Would You Call That Love” confronts an ex regarding his self-centered behaviors. And “Don’t You Pretend” confronts a guy’s unwillingness to take an emotional risk: “I want the real thing or nothing at all.”
“Cruel” explores yet another tough romance, one in which a woman is pouring every ounce of her energy into making it work: “It’s takin’ all of me to love someone like you.” She realizes, “I love you, but I’m losing myself in this runaround.” Then she asks, “Am I being jealous? Are you being selfish.”
“A Minute (Intro)” voices sentiments that will likely resonate with harried moms and wives everywhere: “Sometimes I need a minute just for me/I need a minute just to be.” Album closer “Go High” offers a final dose of determination: “But I won’t give up/I will keep giving love/… I never give up.”
Several songs flirt with mildly suggestive lyrics, albeit without ever getting too racy. On “Love So Soft,” Clarkson coos, “Every kiss is a door/Can I knock on yours?/Can we knock a little more?” That’s followed by, “If a touch is a key/Keep on twisting, keep on locking, keep on turning me.” The chorus teases, “Got you hooked, now you’re caught up/Love so soft, so soft.” Similarly, “Heat” tells a partner whose ardor has cooled, “I need more heat from you, baby/Make me feel weak for you, baby.”
There’s more of the same in “Whole Lotta Woman,” as Clarkson sings, “Woo, woo, I’m a lover/Hold on tight now, little country boy/I ain’t no girl, I’m a boss with orders.” Three times in the song, that self-assurance blends with profanity as she repeats, “I’m a strong, bad-ss chick with classic confidence, yeah.” (Two other songs include profanities, one use each of “d–n” and one of “bulls—.”)
Another passing reference to physical intimacy in a former relationship turns up in “Medicine”: “Your touch don’t heal me now.” Clarkson also employs drug-related imagery in that song when she tells a former flame, “Ya’ can’t get me high/Never got me lit.” In “Cruel,” it’s questionable whether a woman who stays with a guy who keeps staying out until “1, 2, 3:00 o’clock” in the morning is admirably faithful or delusionally foolish, especially given her suspicions that he may be cheating (“I wanna believe you, but I wonder if you’re all alone”).
Pop culture often traps young female performers in a state of arrested development, one in which they (perhaps unwittingly) embrace the notion that their sexuality and their identity are interchangeable.
But some performers see that trap for what it is and extricate themselves from it. (Alanis Morrissette, for instance, and even Miley Cyrus is taking some baby steps in that direction too). Others, meanwhile, seem stubbornly determined to ignore the reality that their appeal at 60 or 70 isn’t what it was when they were young, edgy cultural icons. (Madonna and Cher come to mind.)
Kelly Clarkson definitely isn’t afraid to play with a saucy innuendo or two, and several show up here (as do a couple unfortunate profanities). That said, those moments are generally framed in a bigger relational context, one in which she often talks about her desire for emotional intimacy and permanent fidelity.
Those content bumps in the road here will need to be navigated for younger listeners. Then again, I’m not sure that younger listeners comprise the primary audience that an unabashedly maturing Kelly Clarkson is aiming at these days.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
