Dark Side is Kelly Clarkson‘s third single to come off her fifth studio album Stronger.

The dark and seemingly goth-pop undertones of Dark Side is reminiscent of her previous album My December. And did you just hear some kind of music box playing? That adds not just an intriguingly soothing element to the song but serves to make the track and Kelly’s dialed-down vocals more haunting.

In the song, Kelly Clarkson is a girl asking her lover if he would be willing to stick around despite her imperfections. Honestly, the lyrics by themselves don’t really come off as striking. The lines somehow hover between being conversational and subtle, without going one way or the other. But then again, why nitpick about the lyrics? When the lyrics are taken together with the instrumentation and vocal arrangement, the song just works like a well-oiled machine. It may not be material for Song of the Year, but certainly Dark Side deserves chart success.

The music video seems to take the song and turn it into a song about self-motivation. You will see a man who lost his job, a young girl struggling with her body image, a man who became a victim of bullying, a beauty queen and her pills, and a war veteran who lost a leg. Towards the end of the music video, the people smile and Kelly Clarkson gives them each a hug. “Don’t run away,” Kelly sings near the end, and the music video almost makes it seem like she is saying “don’t run away from your problems or yourself.”

Watch the official Dark Side music video below.