Chemistry (Kelly Clarkson album)

Clarkson started working on the follow-up to her 2017 album, Meaning of Life, in 2019. In June 2020, she announced her divorce from husband Brandon Blackstock. Prior to the divorce, she described the album as if Breakaway (2004) and Stronger (2011) had a baby, and more like Meaning of Life. When she appeared on Sunday Today with Willie Geist in September 2020, she then described the album as every emotion you experience from the beginning to the end of a relationship. She calls it the most personal one she has ever released, and it has been therapeutic for her.[5] Clarkson mentioned she had written around sixty songs while going through her divorce.[6]

In a September 2022 interview with Variety, Clarkson talked about the album. She said she had been working on it for two years; it was an important one, and a lot of the songs were recorded two years earlier (2020). When the divorce happened, she needed to write about it. She told her 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 the Christmas stuff the past two years – because I was like, "Well, that's happy!" Describing the record, she says, "And it's not all bad – like, there is heartbreak in it, and there is sadness in it."[7][8]

In January 2023, during an Instagram live, she mentioned she had just done the album photo shoot with Brian Bowen Smith.[9] While appearing on Angie Martinez's Angie Martinez IRL podcast, Clarkson mentioned one of the songs on the album is called "Red Flag Collector".[10]

Clarkson recorded most of the album in 2020.[7] Two of Clarkson's frequent collaborators, Jason Halbert and Jesse Shatkin, returned to produce this album along with newcomers Eric Serna and Rachel Orscher.

Clarkson wrote on all but two of the album's tracks. "High Road" the third track, is an original song by the duo Jane Black. Rachel Orscher of Jane Black is the associate music producer for The Kelly Clarkson Show, and when Clarkson heard it she thought about asking Orscher if she could cover it during one her Kellyoke segments. Orscher then allowed Clarkson to record the song for the album. Orscher helped produced it with Halbert, and allowed Clarkson to take the song up an octave.[11]

The fourth song "Me" was first written by Gayle and Josh Ronen. They wrote the first verse and chorus. When Clarkson told Atlantic that she was a fan of Gayle's, they told her that she was their artist. Atlantic then sent Clarkson the song. In one night, Clarkson finished the rest of the song.[12]

Clarkson, Jesse Shatkin, and Carly Rae Jepsen wrote the seventh song "Favorite Kind of High". Before it was given to Clarkson, Jepsen wrote the track to it, with Clarkson writing the lyrics and melody when she was given it. One of the happier songs on the album, it is described as a "sexy-ass song" and how it's about "that high when you first see someone and you're like 'Oh, shit.'"[13]

"Red Flag Collector", written by Clarkson, Halbert, and her guitarist Jaco Caraco, begins with a western saloon style vibe with a guitar strum and whistling (from Caraco). The song then takes a more rock turn. A whip can be heard throughout the song, and trumpets are added halfway through. In the bridge, the western saloon style briefly returns with the piano.[14]

The thirteenth track, "I Hate Love", which Clarkson describes as a pop-punk track, features Steve Martin on banjo. Clarkson references Martin in the song which gave her to the idea for Martin to play banjo on it. The title of the track is used in a sarcastic manner.[15] Sheila E. plays drums on the last song "That's Right."

Chemistry was released by Atlantic Records on June 23, 2023. In a September 2022 interview with Variety, Clarkson announced she would release the album in 2023, calling the album "important" and citing music as "helpful" in vocalizing what she feels.[16] On March 25, 2023, Clarkson tweeted wine, heartbreak and sunshine emojis, which is how she described the album while appearing on Access Daily in January 2023.[8] The following day, she announced the album's title on her social media accounts and announced it would be released "soon".[3][17][18] There are multiple colored Vinyl LPs.[19]

On April 24, 2023, to help celebrate the release of the album, Clarkson performed the entire Chemistry album at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles. The show was taped.[20] On June 22, 2023, she appeared on The Today Show to promote the album. She returned to Today on September 22, 2023, to perform. As part of her set list she performed "Favorite Kind of High", "Mine", and "Lighthouse".[21] A deluxe reissue of the album was released on September 22, 2023. On October 13, she performed "Lighthouse" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On October 16, she opened the fifth season of her talk show with "I Don't Give Up", and appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers.[22][23][24]

Clarkson promoted the album during a ten night Las Vegas residency, Chemistry: An Intimate Evening with Kelly Clarkson. It ran from July 28 to August 19, 2023, at the Bakkt Theater.[25] Four additional dates have been added to residency in December 2023, and February 2024.[26]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[31]
i	[32]
The Line of Best Fit	7/10[33]
Metro	[34]
MusicOMH	[35]
PopMatters	7/10[36]
Slant Magazine	[37]

Chemistry was met with positive reviews from critics, who praised Clarkson's voice and the album's emotional and sonic dexterity. On review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, Chemistry received a score of 70 out of 100 based on seven reviews.

Critics praised the personal nature of Chemistry, with Hanif Abdurraqib of The New Yorker writing that the album "successfully preserves the aura of interpersonal intimacy that Clarkson has cultivated with audiences for two decades" with Clarkson at times "sing[ing] in a torrential flow, like a person who has held her frustrations and aches inside for too long."[38] Ilana Kaplan of Rolling Stone similarly wrote, "the record hinges on Clarkson's emotive vocals and soul-baring lyrics, turning Chemistry into her most vulnerable project since My December."[39]

Lindsay Zoladz of The New York Times praised Clarkson's vocals and highlighted the "wrenching, piano-driven torch song 'Lighthouse'" in particular, a song she labeled among "one of the album’s most impassioned vocal performances."[40]

Kate Solomon of i also praised the album's exploration of emotion and wrote, "Chemistry ripples with sadness even at its most upbeat moments. Clarkson has always been a master of the heartbroken power ballads but these feel more understated than her adolescent weepies. She's more restrained, more mature and more conflicted."[32] Lucy Norris of Metro wrote, "Chemistry was three years in the making and ultimately ripped apart her breakup, while allowing listeners physically feel her put herself right back together again in the most triumphant exploration of love we’ve ever heard from the 2002 American Idol champion."[34]

Chemistry debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200 with 53,000 equivalent album units earned, of which 9,000 SEA units account for 11.25 million on-demand official streams and 43,000 albums sales, making it the top-selling physical album of the week.[41] It became Clarkson's ninth top-10 album in the United States.[42]

Vocals

Musicians

Production

Imagery

• Gloria Elias-Foeillet – makeup
• Alex Kirzhner – art direction
• Candace Lambert McAndrews – styling
• Robert Ramos – hair
• Brian Bowen Smith – photography