Deep breaths. After an early version of Kelly Clarkson’s song “Let Me Down” leaked earlier this week, we were already SO PUMPED for the single’s official release in August. But now three — THREE!!!! — new songs have just found their way onto the web, and you guys, they’re sooooooo good. Hear all three on the other side.
The first, “What Doesn’t Kill You,” is a Pink-style empowerment song whose glitzy production around the chorus will catapult it up the charts. (Anyone else getting a bit of “F–kin’ Perfect” here?) Clarkson’s voice is as strong as ever as she sings, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger / Stand a little taller / Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone.”
On the all-grown-up “I Forgive You,” Clarkson reflects on her adolescent relationships and offers a truce: “We were just a couple of kids trying to figure out how to live, doing it our way / No shame, no blame, ’cause the damage is done / and I forgive you.” The song has the same pop-rock vibe that provided the backbone for “Since U Been Gone” — you know, the kind that makes you roll up the car windows and belt our the chorus like your life depended on it.
On “Dumb + Dumb = U” Clarkson delivers another of her signature kiss-offs a la “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” as she proclaims, “It ain’t rocket science / I may not be Einstein, but I know that dumb plus dumb equals you!”