my december

(artwork © 2007 19 recordings / rca records)

i'm in love with this album.  no lie.

kelly clarkson is getting a lot of flack from the critics (and her record label, too, apparently) for releasing an entire album of break-up songs, but i seem to have a particular affinity for this kind of material.  no idea why. 

actually — in this one particular instance — i may have actually conditioned myself.  on my first listen, i found the first three songs of "my december" a bit difficult to take in one sitting — my shoulders actually tensed and i started to become slightly cranky. 

just before the fourth track came on, i said — aloud and to no one in particular — "okay, she really needs a ballad right about now." 

lo and behold, "sober" began to play.  the clouds parted, the angels sang and the endorphins in my brain went crazy.  instant love! 

so, now, like a pavlovian lab animal, i associate that song with a natural chemical rush.  i'm sure the limerance will eventually fade (as it always does), but, for now, i'm grooving to this album, listening to it on my iPod shuffle on the treadmill.  if i'm lucky, maybe my brain will extend the pleasurable association with cardio work-outs.

i loves me some k.c.!

Posted by jason at July 25, 2007 07:30 AM