BREAKAWAY marks many milestones for Kelly Clarkson. While she will always be identified as the first American Idol winner, she has with BREAKWAY seperated herself from that persona. This album marks a reinvention of the pop artist who won and who released a standard pop-style release with THANKFUL. This album is edgier and more rock-influenced, maybe a little too Avril Lavigne influenced at times, but a very tasteful pop-rock effort. You can tell (as with the other sophomore American Idol LPs) that Clarkson's voice has matured a lot sincer her competition days. We can now start to judge Clarkson as not the American Idol winner, but as her own individual artist.
This album has a great song selection overall, but there should've been more up tempo numbers to balance out the ballads. That does hold this album back, the fact that there are so many ballads, yet Clarkson voice stays strong despite the occasional stale material (appearing in the middle part of the album). Like most American Idol albums, Breakaway opens with two hits, "Breakaway" and the masterpiece "Since U Been Gone". These are two of my personal top picks from the album. "Addicted", "Walk Away", and ending track "Beautiful Disaster {Live}" are also some very noteworthy tunes from Clarkson's sophomore effort. With that said, Kelly Clarkson is a consistent artist releasing two hit albums and showing improvement on this sophomore effort. Isn't that what the record business should be about? Being able to make better albums as you progress through your career and being able to successfully reinvent yourself. Clarkson has transformed from teen-pop to pop-rock between two albums and has executed it successfully. This album is one of the best of the American Idol releases. 4 stars.
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