Kelly Clarksonis getting real about what fans can expect from her highly-anticipated upcoming record.
“It took a minute for me to be able to release this album because I had to get past it in order to talk about it,” the “Breakaway” singer added.
She then shared details about the photoshoot for the album cover.
“I do whatever it takes to get out of a shoot — it’s not my happy place,” Clarkson said, adding that this one felt different. “It felt like me. I was able to be free and be myself.”
“You’re gonna want [it] on a vinyl just for the picture alone… that’s incredible and that’snotphotoshopped.”
Kelly Clarkson.Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
In September, Clarksonopened up about the new albumduring a cover story interview withVariety.
“I’m working on my album this week. It’s coming out next year. And this is an important album,” Clarkson told the outlet. “I’m working on this in therapy — I have a hard time vocalizing what I’m feeling sometimes, so music is helpful for me. It’s just been really healing. I recorded the record quite some time ago.”
Nearly seven years after their October 2013 nuptials, Clarksonfiled for divorcefrom Brandon Blackstock, citing irreconcilable differences, in June 2020. She seemingly began creating the album shortly afterward, tellingVarietyit’s been in the works for “two years.”
“When my ex and I first separated, there were many emotions. It was hard,” said Clarkson. “My producer and I were laughing yesterday because I was like, ‘Remember that time we wrote, like, 25 songs in a week?’ A lot of those are the ones that are on the album.”
After writing most of the record “almost two years ago,” theAmerican Idolalum explained, “Then I told my label, ‘I can’t talk about this until I’ve gone through it,’ and it’s just taken some time to do that. That’s one of the reasons we’ve done a lot of Christmas stuff the past two years — because I was like, ‘Well, that’s happy!'” (Clarkson released a cover of Vince Vance & the Valiants’ “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 2020 as well asher Grammy-nominated holiday album,When Christmas Comes Around…, in 2021.)
Given her many other personal and professional roles at the time, she wasn’t planning on making a new album until she “needed to.”
“There were so many jobs, and I’m a single mom — well, even with being married, it’s a lot, trying to fit kids' schedules in and all that stuff. But then the whole divorce thing happened, and I needed to write it,” Clarkson said. “And then I didn’t know if I was going to release it, because you can be very angry in that state of mind.”
Detailing the album’s subject matter, she continued, “So some of the songs, they definitely cover the gamut of emotions; there’s everything on the album. It’s almost like the arc of a relationship, because the beginning is so beautiful and so sweet, and then it evolves. And sometimes it doesn’t evolve how you want.”
source: people.com
