When Christmas Comes Around… Again

On her triumphant eighth album, Kelly Clarkson summons her inner Aretha. Trading her signature hook-laden pop-rock for gutsy soul, it’s a straight-talking, hater-shaking hear-me-roar smash that shows off her superhuman range and vocal strength like never before. For the Nashville-based star, happiness is a happy marriage (“Meaning of Life”), an open mind (“Move You”) and a bulletproof self-confidence (“Go High”). But the highlight has to be “Whole Lotta Woman”, a rip-roaring collaboration with Earth, Wind & Fire that bulldozes bullies and body-shamers: “I ain’t no girl/I’m a boss with orders.”