To be frank, this whole album is full of songs that pull on your heartstrings. It’s cut from the same cloth as its predecessor and is similar in the way it hits you right in the heart. It’s unbelievable how many of the songs on this album would slot right into place on a party playlist and this one is no different. Similarly, Behind These Hazel Eyes is another unabashed banger and is targeted at an ex. Even the difference in the album artwork on the two albums is noticeable: one shows her smiling with a white, angelic background and the other is notably edgier, with Kelly glimpsing at the camera through honey-toned hair. It was the reinvention of Kelly Clarkson only a year after she had released her sparkling, held-back debut. After all, Breakaway went six times platinum and is Clarkson’s best-selling album to date. Having her second album start off with the title track was a risky bet, and letting it flow into the raucous break-up anthem that is Since U Been Gone was even riskier, and yet somehow this makes for an irrevocably entertaining opening to what would go on to be a career-defining album. Once she regained control over her career trajectory, she etched out a unique sound that set her apart from the likes of Nelly Furtado, Hilary Duff and Jessica Simpson, who were all releasing music around the same time. Sure, it has some noteworthy tracks, but Breakaway is an album that is impossible to pause an album that shows Kelly as she wanted the world to see her, and is a near-perfect attribution to her discography. Her first album doesn’t stray far away from being anything more than the debut-from-a-talent-contest-winner and is notably held back, constrained by the need to be PG in order to go with the image American Idol wanted her to have. This album is Kelly Clarkson undoubtedly at her best: Thankful, her debut, has some memorable tracks like Miss Independent, Beautiful Disaster, and Low, but it doesn’t compare to the second offering that shows her completely step away from her origins (she won the first-ever American Idol in 2002). It well and truly holds up to this day an eclectic cut from the “girl next door” who was dipping her foot in the pool of rock, and it massively paid off. And, yes, it’s probably the best song I’ve ever heard in a club. The other day I requested the same song at a nightclub, some fourteen or so years later. If only life could be that simple.īack when I listened to music by flicking through channels on the TV, I would search for a song I loved: I remember Since U Been Gone playing on MTV, and I can still picture the music video from beginning to end. Listening to it again, right now, it transports me back and sends a shiver down my spine if I close my eyes, just for a split second I might be seven again. That song was playing in the car, and I was reenacting the same solemn solo music video performance we’ve all seen (and done) a hundred times. When I hear that song now, it takes me back to driving away from a Summer holiday in Bournemouth, grumpily sitting in the back of the car, begrudged to be departing so soon. In The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), one of the songs that featured on the soundtrack was Breakaway, which would go on to become one of my favourite songs during my childhood - no thanks to the film, or the CD my sister owned of the album. At this point in my life, and only having one sister, meant that it had to be her who took on the coveted position of educating me in pop culture subsequently, this included the two movie adaptations of said books. The Princess Diaries was one (well, there are about ten in the series - I only read one and six) of them. There was never a dull moment discovering music in my house.īack in the day, I was a frequent library-goer (thanks in part to our lack of Wi-Fi or computer to study on) and I’d check books out upon every visit. On one hand, my sister would be playing Britney, Rihanna, Steps, and all that wonderful 00s pop that gets played on the cringe floor of a club nowadays, and my brothers would be blasting Blink-182, The Offspring and anything you’d hear on an emo night at your local. After all, having siblings that have ten years on you means you’ve got a whole encyclopedia of music at your fingertips, waiting to be discovered. Growing up as the youngest of five means you absorb all sorts of music. Revisiting old albums I loved back when the biggest worry I had was passing my SATs provided a comfort blanket in a time where it felt like Groundhog Day at every waking moment. I’ve been indulging in albums that defined my childhood as of late, not able to shake the grip that nostalgia has on me - especially not after my 22nd birthday, of course, and the impending doom that lockdown brought.
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