The Singles Jukebox

So it’s been in the news a bit…

[Video][Website]
[4.94]

Andrew Brennan: Ryan Tedder — that bastard! And I thought he was originally going to give “Halo” to Leona Lewis. On my first listen I didn’t think “Already Gone” sounded that much like “Halo”. But after that I couldn’t stop expecting “I can see your halo halo halo” every time the chorus kicked in. Sigh. Otherwise I think it’s really good — nice main and backing vocals, lovely strings, great pickup at 3:40 — it’s certainly better than Ms. Clarkson’s other recent singles. Quit ruining everything, OneRepublic. Please?
[7]

John Seroff: For better or worse, this is not Clarkson’s song. It’s Beyonce’s song and I like it better when Beyonce sings it. Trading urgency for Sarah McLachlan-style bent notes and dulling the bass in favor of more insistent strings only increases my suspicion that “Gone”‘s natural habitat is playing over the “other symptoms may include” disclaimer in a Lunesta commercial. Heck, I like this better when Nick Pitera sings it. Probably best for Kelly to take a mulligan here and move on.
[4]

Alfred Soto: Despite the artiste’s complaints about producer-songwriter Ryan Tedder’s self-plagiarism, this improves on Beyoncé’s interminable “Halo.” Call me perverse, though: this track seems a better fit for Tedder’s vocal keening than Clarkson’s excellent pipes.
[5]

Alex Macpherson: That parts of “Already Gone” seem to be literally copy-and-posted from Beyoncé’s “Halo” is only the most obvious manifestation of songwriter Ryan Tedder’s hackwork. (Parts which, sadly, don’t include any hooks; for all its faults, at least “Halo” was memorable.) All his songs are as subtle as an undergraduate’s hurriedly plagiarised essay, and about as devoid of worth: all empty bluster and hollow bombast, even a performer as stellar as poor Kelly Clarkson is reduced to flailing around loudly and pointlessly. There seem to be some serious delusions of grandeur reflected in this music; let’s hope this débâcle kills them off for good.
[2]

Ian Mathers: I’ve been watching a lot of Six Feet Under recently, so I’m in the mood for a stirring ballad about how loving someone isn’t always enough for a relationship. Clarkson goes beyond “it’s not you, it’s me”, I think – she acknowledges both that she still cares for him and that he “couldn’t have loved me better” but that things just aren’t working. It’s the kind of great pop single that’s emotionally nuanced enough it’s probably doomed to be used as ‘generic breakup song’ by people who don’t notice or care that “Already Gone” is about something much more difficult and painful.
[8]

Keane Tzong: Kelly manages to elevate this into something more than the drab leftover its opening chords seem to promise it’ll be. She makes the absolute best of the situation, stamping the track as her own with a surprisingly delicate performance of a (slightly) more intriguing vocal melody, but it’s not quite enough to banish the specter of its older sisters completely.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: “I love you enough to let you go”: what-the-fuck-ever, Kelly. Sure, she makes “I want you to move on/So I’m already gone” sound genuinely empathetic. But this song-doctor special with its nylon-hazy production is one big wheeze.
[5]

Chuck Eddy: I always like her, never love her. I’ve always had trouble distinguishing her songs from each other, and lately I’ve been having trouble distinguishing her songs from Pink’s songs, too. Prefer “Since You Been Gone” by Head East or Rainbow; prefer “Already Gone” by the Eagles.
[6]

Anthony Easton: I like her better angry then resigned.
[3]

Doug Robertson: So, Kelly, I guess Shontelle’s been cropping up a lot on your iPod recently then? Or at least in marketing meetings about where to position you.
[4]

Martin Skidmore: She shows her range, and sings it with force and judgement, but it’s not the kind of thing I can get too enthusiastic about.
[6]

Hillary Brown: I’ve changed my score from 6 to 7 to 6 to 7, which probably means this is like a 6.5. Better than “better than average”, but not really hooky enough to hit 7, and if it came from anyone but Kelly Clarkson it’d probably only be a 6. Too long, too mopey, too much repeating of the same words, but nice strings and nice lingering over particular bits vocally.
[6]

Alex Ostroff: Kelly’s voice floats perfectly above it all, but the song sounds laboured. I would suggest that Kelly can’t pull off ballads as convincingly as vengeful rockers, but My December highlight “Sober” proves that she can ache with the best of them. In the end, Kelly feels less emotionally committed to the material on All I Ever Wanted, and while that works well on the tossed-off grunge and low-fi doo-wop dabblings she throws at us elsewhere on the album, “Already Gone” requires her grit and bile, both of which are sorely lacking.
[5]

Martin Kavka: My God, Ryan Tedder, what have you done to her? Kelly was a feisty woman with an expressive voice; she even owned her vulnerability in her best ballad (“Irvine”). Now she’s a wisp of a thing — her higher register really doesn’t suit her — and in dire need of therapy. You’ve cut her open, and she’s bleeding love, but this is too unseemly for lightning to strike twice. After hearing the far superior arrangement and vocal performance on Letterman’s show, I can’t wait for the fuck-off anthem she writes about Tedder after she’s been mercifully released from the claws of 19 Entertainment.
[4]

Anthony Miccio: I have a feeling Clarkson’s disappointment with this track being a single has more to do with having to bust out such a drab, repetitive ballad at her live shows than anything to do with Ryan Tedder or Beyonce. That shit’s just insult to injury.
[4]

Iain Mew: Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious, but it’s “A Somewhat Reduced Quantity of Air”, isn’t it?
[4]

Al Shipley: Shoulda let Jordin Sparks take this one.
[4]