Kelly Clarkson has returned to the music scene with her fifth studio album, “Stronger.”

The album doesn’t deviate much from Clarkson’s typical formula of catchy, sing-along anthems about how ignorant boys are. “Stronger,” however, never fully achieves the success and repeatability of her previous album, “All I Ever Wanted.”

For starters, the first single off of “Stronger,” “Mr. Know it All,” although sung as masterfully as ever, is a tepid soft-rock creation that never builds to the power of “My Life Would Suck Without You.” The empowering, dance-pop confection “What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)” would’ve been a much better choice for a first single.

Although anger and powerful emotion go hand-in-hand in any Kelly song, she seems to have an overabundance here. Almost every song complains about something. Sometimes this works well, like in the ’80s-inspired “Alone” and “You Can’t Win,” Kelly’s attack on the superficial music industry.

There are a lot of angry yet forgettable songs with bitter lyrics and inoffensive backing melodies that all seem to blend together. These songs, including “You Love Me” and “Dark Side,” suffer not from being horrible but from being merely OK. On the other hand, “I Forgive You,” while being a perfect scream-along song, provides listeners a welcome respite from the album’s animosity.

With 17 songs on the album, the length of “Stronger” perplexes, as it’s clear that some songs—like the baffling country ballad “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” featuring Jason Aldean—could’ve and should’ve been cut. Other songs, like “Standing in Front of You,” are simply boring and equally dispensable.

In the end, the album gave me that dangerous feeling of ambivalence. Fans of Clarkson will appreciate the mix of powerfully sung ballads and guitar-fueled girl power. But while she belts songs as well as ever, there isn’t anything groundbreaking here, and only a few of songs are worthy of repeated listens.