My Life Would Suck Without You

I love the new single by Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You."

When I first heard of it a few weeks ago, I thought, yuck, what a title. I heard a few seconds at Amazon, but it must have been one of those days. Plus, I wasn't going to buy it, just to turn around and buy the whole album when it came out. So I only heard it those few seconds, then once on the radio. It sounded a little "paint by numbers" as a song, and I suppose it is.

But seeing/hearing it on American Idol, and now with the CD, hearing it over the speakers and especially on the earbuds, it's a beautiful song. I love the sentiment and the fact that it's romantic and also admittedly dysfunctional. It's easy to identify with that in our ordinary relationships, because we know where all the bodies are buried. Nothing's perfect, but still, I can say to her, "My life would suck without without you!" In fact I can say that a lot more honestly than some of the other romantic songs that don't allow for ambiguity.

I'm old enough that I actually remember when people started using the word "suck," and it wasn't a part of normal conversation. You wouldn't say it if a teacher was in the room, let's say. But as time went on (stroking my very long gray beard), Beavis and Butthead, then kids saying it about everything, now it's something you can hear in church, "The offering sucked today." Heh, I don't know about that last one. So when I heard the title, I thought yuck.

But it's a great song. I love it.

By the way, it's a lot better listening to it up close with earbuds than over the speakers. It's a lot more involved sounding with background stuff that you miss over the speakers.