Clive Davis Still Giving Kelly Clarkson’s “My December” A Chilly Reception

noah | June 5, 2007 4:15 am
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The Kelly Clarkson-Clive Davis war of words is clearly not going to end anytime soon–or at least not until Clarkson’s next album, My December, comes out later this month. A brief recap: Rumblings about December being pushed back from its late July release date surfaced a few weeks ago, after Davis allegedly panned the largely Clarkson-penned record in a company meeting; the album’s release date was then pushed up to June 26; then, during the American Idol finale, Davis took to the podium and neglected to plug Clarkson’s album, instead extolling the virtues of professional songwriters.

The skirmish continued last week, the New York Post ran a piece claiming that Davis was out of touch and cramping Clarkson’s style; today, in a sorta-surprising show of corporate dissonance, Fox 411 columnist Roger Friedman ran an item that opened with a comparison between Clarkson and Courtney Love (!), and went on to blame Clarkson’s manager, Jeff Kwatinetz, for a good portion of the friction:

It was only this past weekend that RCA learned Kwatinetz is being listed by Clarkson as “executive producer” of the album. This indicates a new role for Kwatinetz, who is not the most popular member of the recording industry. Managers generally do not receive “EP” credits on albums. They are listed as managers.

In this case, though, Kwatinetz may regret what he’s wished for. “My December” has already spawned one non-starter single in “Never Again,” a kind of tough-chick rock song that failed to penetrate radio or video. After six weeks, it’s already being pulled from rotations after not catching on.

Even though “My December” isn’t ready for press copies, three of its songs can be heard on AOL (all of its lyrics are available, too). None of them has the bright catchy pop hooks of Clarkson’s previous hits like “Since U Been Gone.” One of them, “Sober,” is kind of a rock dirge that boasts the refrain, “Three months … and I’m still sober!”

Now, you’d think that someone with such “inside connections” would at least be able to get his hands on an advance copy of the album–or at least a copy of last week’s Billboard, in which the charts show that “Never Again” was up from No. 17 to No. 9. Sure, that bounce is probably attributable to Clarkson’s performance of the song on the American Idol finale, but the rush to bury “Never Again” after six weeks on the charts seems a bit premature–look at Pink’s “U & Ur Hand,” which possesses a similar chick-rock ferocity and had its own yo-yo ride up and down the charts.

Obviously, December is a big release for Sony BMG, although their expectations may be a bit too high in the current climate of depressed record sales. Breakaway, Clarkson’s previous album, sold 5.7 million copies; an anonymous exec quoted in the piece is fretting that “Kelly will not sell anywhere near her previous numbers” with December, but then again, Norah Jones hasn’t hit her previous-sold target, either. Is this fight really one between Kwatinetz and Davis, and Kelly is just caught in the middle? The piece’s final anonymous quote–“Even if [December] fails, he’ll work with Kelly again if she’s ready to listen.”–makes us wonder if the struggle here isn’t executive-artist as much as it is executive-manager.

FOX 411: Kelly Clarkson: ‘My December’ Trouble [foxnews.com]