With her tenth studio album, “chemistry,” the singer turned talk-show host drills into the specific heartbreak of a marriage’s end. 

In 2020, after filing for divorce from her husband of nearly seven years, Brandon Blackstock, Clarkson hinted at new music, claiming that she was writing the “most personal” album she’s ever made.  

Last year, she said that she’d been working on the record for two years, and that she’d done the Christmas songs because it had provided a joyful break from the difficult realities of her life. 

That project-in-the-making, “chemistry,” is finally out, and it is a worthy entry in the annals of breakup albums, a musical gesture that teases, entices, and—for better or worse—provides the public a window into a relationship gone bad. 

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