Kelly Clarkson has said she wants My December to be like Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, because it's daring, uncommercial,uncompromising and . . . oh, come on. It's a Kelly Clarkson album, for fuck's sake. From the hoopla, you'd figure Kelly was playing free-jazz flugelhorn through her nose after drinking Justin Guarini's blood. It's cool that she's trying to write songs, but the tunes come up seriouslys hort on choruses and heavy on the Alanis Morissette references. Her voice sags in low-energy drones like "One Minute" (feels like an hour), and "Don't Waste Your Time" (which has the album's best line: "Friend? What does that even mean?"). But "How I Feel" is the best New Wave lobster-rock goof since Cassie's "What Do U Want," and even at her tiredest, Kelly still makes you care about her — you just want to play "Since U Been Gone" for her and cheer her up.

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."