Fall of 2017 is taking shape as one of the higher traffic release seasons for pop albums, especially from notable figures. Taylor Swift announced her sixth studio album, “Reputation,” for release on November 10, but not before others like Kelly Clarkson and Demi Lovato, who will be releasing (respectively) “Meaning of Life” on October 27, and “Tell Me You Love Me” on September 29. All three artists have released singles to inspire hype for their albums.

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Beginning with Kelly Clarkson’s singles, “Love So Soft,” and “Move You,” her album shows some promise. “Love So Soft” has good song structure with choir elements and a warm bass guitar. There’s plenty of audible big band influence which makes for a level of inherent excitement in the track. “Move You,” in stark comparison, is a weaker, even generic sounding, rock ballad stacked full of obscure similes. It’s a lot of words, to say so little, other than that expectations for the rest of the album should remain neutral.

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Continuing, Demi Lovato has been generous, so to speak, with three singles released (which should be a somewhat complete sampling of the album to come). Unfortunately, all three are disappointing. “Sorry Not Sorry” has an interesting Lo-Fi layer to its production, but suffers from vague simplistic lyrics, rendering the song half baked, to say the least. “Tell Me You Love Me” starts out like the great song it never was going to be, again held back by lyrics that in no way stand out within the lexicon of pop music. Additionally, Demi’s voice has a lot of obvious post-recording effects on it which, not only suggest a vocal versatility lower than that of her contemporaries, but which jar the ears of the listener (specifically during moments meant to have a great deal of emotional weight). The third single, “You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore,” comes the closest to being able to rely solely on Demi’s pure voice and the emotion within it. Even then though, it is not a particularly ensnaring song design.

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Lastly, the most controversial figure mentioned, Taylor Swift, and her two singles, “…Ready For It?” and “Look What You Made Me Do.” The latter option starts out perfectly fine, with Taylor’s sound clearly evolving for a changing industry standard. That said, as soon as the first verse and pre-chorus pass, the song quickly spirals into a haphazard mess of transitions from one collection of bloated 808s to the next. The bridge is a moment of relief, but not valuable enough to justify the rest of the song. “…Ready For It?” in much the same way clashes with itself, contrasting its Death Grips mimicking beat with the soft chorus/outro that sounds like it could have been taken from a “1989” B-side.

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Within a few months, it will be apparent which artists released the most accurate representations of their projects to come. Kelly Clarkson’s will likely have some very good moments on it, as her discography serves to corroborate, while Swift, regardless of quality, will almost certainly be a source of rippling influence for her genre, as more formulaic artists like Demi Lovato are caught in the undertow.