Kelly Clarkson’s Captivating Divorce Album

Kelly Clarkson’s voice was always wasted on saccharine ballads such as “A Moment Like This,” the début single that she released, in 2002, after winning the inaugural season of “American Idol.” In the two decades since, Clarkson has proved to be a chameleonic singer, capable of working her way around a wide range of musical genres and production styles. At the peak of her popularity (and her vocal might), in the late two-thousands, she seemed most at home performing loud, vibrant rock songs that could nonetheless blend in among the comforts of pop radio. To my mind, Clarkson was like a new evolution of Ann Wilson, the powerhouse front woman of the rock band Heart. During live performances, Clarkson would get in the face of her guitar players as she belted high notes, swing her hair at a violent pace, push the volume past ten. In an alternate time line, where the spectre of “Idol” didn’t perpetually hover over Clarkson, she might have been talked about as one of the great rock singers of a generation.