Maps of Music

Piece by Piece (2015)

Where the lyrics of Piece by Piece take you, and where it was really made.

Piece by Piece closed Clarkson's contract from American Idol's first season, yet a year after release its title track pushed the album back into the Billboard 200 top 10.

Key places

Starstruck Studios, Nashville (2015)

Recording site Starstruck Studios — Starstruck Studios in Nashville is listed among the studios credited for Piece by Piece. The point uses the building-level coordinates of the studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Ocean Way studio, Nashville (2015)

Recording site Ocean Way Nashville — Ocean Way is listed among the Nashville studios credited for Piece by Piece. The point is set at city-center level for the studio's location. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Germano Studios, New York City (2015)

Recording site Germano Studios — Germano Studios in New York City is credited as a studio used for Piece by Piece. The point is set at city-center level for the studio's location. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

EastWest Studios, Los Angeles (2015)

Recording site EastWest Studios — EastWest Studios in Los Angeles is listed among the studios credited for Piece by Piece. The point is set at city-center level for the studio's location. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach (2015)

Recording site MixStar Studios — The album was mixed at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The point uses the building-level coordinates of the studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Piece by Piece: seventh studio album by Kelly Clarkson
• Released 27 February 2015 by RCA Records; Europe and Oceania first, Americas on 3 March 2015
• Final studio album under her recording contract, signed after winning American Idol's first season in 2002
• Concept record telling a single story; themes of heartbreak, personal struggle, peace, and empowerment
• Music mixes electropop, orchestral pop, power pop and electronic dance music

Background

• Followed Wrapped in Red (2013), her first Christmas album
• Recording began during the 2013 Honda Civic Tour with Maroon 5, and continued while Clarkson was pregnant with her first child
• Greg Kurstin led the production team; Jesse Shatkin and Jason Halbert also produced tracks
• Joseph Trapanese arranged five songs with a full philharmonic orchestra
• Clarkson took cues from the soundtracks of Cruel Intentions and Love Actually

Recording

• Clarkson had amassed over twenty songs during production
• Her pregnancy limited her own writing, so she gathered material from other writers she admired
• Heartbeat Song opens the album and was written with Kara DioGuardi, Jason Evigan, Audra Mae and Mitch Allan
• Clarkson called the title track her most personal song on the album

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Born Kelly Brianne Clarkson on April 24, 1982, in Fort Worth, Texas, and raised in Burleson, Texas.
• Won the first season of American Idol in 2002 and signed with RCA Records.
• Debut single "A Moment Like This" became the best-selling single of 2002 in the United States.
• Debut album Thankful (2003) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
• Breakaway (2004) became her most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century.
• Singles "Since U Been Gone" and "Because of You" achieved major chart success; "Because of You" became her biggest single worldwide.
• Stronger (2011) won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2013 ceremony.
• Wrapped in Red (2013) became the best-selling holiday album of the year.
• Signed with Atlantic Records in 2015 and released Meaning of Life (2017), When Christmas Comes Around... (2021), and Chemistry (2023).
• Coached The Voice for multiple seasons and hosted The Kelly Clarkson Show from 2019.
• Has sold over 82 million records worldwide and received three Grammy Awards.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: average score of 63 out of 100 from 12 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews
• Critics mainly praised Clarkson's vocal performances
• Criticism focused on the production and the heavy use of midtempo arrangements
• AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine): three stars; said the album piles on EDM affectations instead of consolidating the mature pop of Stronger
• Slant Magazine (Alexa Camp): three stars; said the imperfections in Clarkson's voice on Wrapped in Red were spit-polished away
• Idolator (Jonathan Riggs): three and a half stars
• Billboard (Jamieson Cox): three and a half stars; said Clarkson largely abandoned spiky pop rock for midtempo arrangements
• The Guardian (Caroline Sullivan): three stars; praised her voice
• The Observer (Michael Cragg): four stars; described the album as loaded with laser-guided, heartfelt pop music
• PopMatters (Colin McGuire): seven out of ten
• Time (Katherine St. Asaph): praised her voice; lamented the midtempo arrangements
• Rolling Stone (Chuck Arnold): three stars; praised the homage to 80s pop
• The A.V. Club (Annie Zaleski): grade C; said the music does not play to her strengths
• New York Daily News (Jim Farber): two stars; said the production piles on gloss

Records

• Billboard 200: debuted at number one with 97,000 album-equivalent units, including 83,000 traditional sales
• Her third Billboard 200 number-one album, and first in six years since All I Ever Wanted (2009)
• Top ten in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the United Kingdom
• UK Albums Chart: debuted at number six with over 14,000 units; her fifth UK top ten album
• Heartbeat Song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100; the title track debuted at number eight there
• Three Grammy Award nominations, including her fourth nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album
• A year after release it rose from number 120 to number 6 on the Billboard 200 with 44,000 units
• Over 284,000 copies sold in the United States as of September 2017

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Clarkson had planned Invincible as a duet with Sia, but RCA kept Sia's vocals uncredited to avoid competition with Sia's own album 1000 Forms of Fear
• Run Run Run was first a solo record; Clarkson invited John Legend to make it a duet after recording her part on the 2013 tour
• Legend responded within ten minutes of the invitation
• Tokio Hotel also recorded Run Run Run for their album Kings of Suburbia (2014), which Clarkson did not know about until releasing her own version
• Heartbeat Song was described as a bridge connecting Stronger to Piece by Piece
• The title track returned to the top of the chart's ranks a year later after an emotional performance on the 15th season of American Idol

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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