Kelly Clarkson Is Out Here Covering Blink-182, And It Rules
Kelly Clarkson’s ongoing Kellyoke project — the thing where Clarkson covers a different song every day on her daytime talk show — has recently been digging into ’90s alt-rock: Gin Blossoms, Garbage, Soundgarden. But other than the odd My Chemical Romance cover, Kelly Clarkson has mostly stayed away from the whole pop-punk realm. There’s a reason for that. Pop-punk tends to rely on whiny, nasal delivery — MCR are a kind of exception — and a power-belter like Clarkson might sound truly lost if she was singing, like, NOFX. I will tell you what, though: I could listen to Kelly Clarkson singing Blink-182 all day long.
On today’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Clarkson sings “All The Small Things,” the shimmering Blink banger that became a crossover top-10 hit right around the turn of the millennium. She only sings a verse and a couple of choruses, and she sadly skips the “work sucks, I know” bit. She also smartly avoids anything resembling a Tom DeLonge impression, which is hard to do when you’re singing one of these songs. Not everyone is going to like this. I bet one of you motherfuckers is crafting a snarky comments-section response right this minute. From where I’m sitting, though, this shit goes hard.
When Kelly Clarkson hits that second hook? When she’s like “carry me hooo-aaaawwwwm”? Fucking forget about it. Goosebumps. It’s awesome. Below, watch the cover and the original video.
If Tom DeLonge ever leaves Blink again, they shouldn’t bring in Matt Skiba as their ringer. They should bring in Kelly Clarkson.