Thankful

04/15/2003 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor

The credits read like a 'Who's Who in the Music Business,' provided names such as Diane Warren, Desmond Child, and Clive Davis ring your musical insider bell. There was no way that a television-developed musical discovery from the wondrously popular American Idol was going to be left in the hands of second-rate hacks. Get me Babyface Edmonds on the phone, and tell Corey Feldman to stay home! No, when 57 percent of the voting public order up 21-year-old Texan Kelly Clarkson as their queen for a night, you don't settle for obvious leftovers. Thankful is everything an American Idol viewer would expect from a debut album: the musical drama of Meat Loaf, Celine Dion, and the crew from Titanic, the R&B pyrotechnics of Whitney Houston, the (sub)urban melodrama of Mariah Carey and lots and lots of vocal gymnastics. That it all sounds like it came from a can is beside the point. It's supposed to sound like that. Now pass "Go" and collect $20 million.