The XX Factor: What women really think.

I’m Sorry, Honey, But I Just Don’t Love Bruce Springsteen

My husband has been in love with Bruce Springsteen longer than he's been in love with me. Bruce's lyrics were the soundtrack for our courtship (I came for you, for you, I came for you), our long-overdue wedding (So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore), the many years of our marriage (This life, this life and then the next, with you I have been blessed), and his own work (sick of sitting round here trying to write this book). He rarely misses a Springsteen concert and can recite tracks, covers, and lyrics for any occasion. It was no surprise to me then that... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Chris Brown, Silly Boy

Pajama Jam

Every so often a song appears that is obviously best listened to in pajamas at a slumber party with fake microphone in hand. Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" is such a song (it's also the No. 1 single in the country). You've been warned if you decide to put this on in a place where you have to behave like a proper adult because, among other things, it sounds a lot worse when you're sitting still. On the "Like a Prayer" scale (that Madonna song being, at least for a subset of women my age, the track most likely to have inspired juvenile dancing en masse or, in significantly lamer present-day terms, the wedding song most likely to make everyone start hysterically laughing and get on the dance floor), I think it clocks in at about a seven, just a smidge behind Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone." (The two songs sound almost exactly the same. If it ain't broke and all.) Another track off Clarkson's new record, All I Ever Wanted, the awesomely titled "I Do Not Hook Up," is almost as power chord catchy. With this album, Clarkson is burnishing her everygirl cred: Unlike Madonna, but like most everyone else, she tried rebelling and failed. (She released her last record over protestations from music suits who told her the album was a mess—it was, and it flopped.) So she went back to the authority-approved stuff and is now bettering sleepover parties across the nation.