On October 21, 2011, Kelly Clarkson released her fifth album “Stronger,” into the world. The album followed 2009’s “All I Ever Wanted,” which ditched the serious tone Kelly picked up when taking creative control on her third album “My December” to instead lean into trendier pop sounds from previous collaborators such as Max Martin and Dr. Luke, as well as megahit writers such as Ryan Tedder. “All I Ever Wanted” was a big commercial success, giving her her second #1 album and single with “My Life Would Suck Without You.” Despite the commercial rebound, “All I Ever Wanted” was also marked by squabbles with collaborators, as Clarkson has since spoken about not enjoying the sessions with Martin & Dr. Luke and publicity criticized Ryan Tedder for similarities between his co-writes “Already Gone” and “Halo” by Beyoncé, so for her follow up Clarkson brought in a new cast of collaborators including Greg Kurstin, Ester Dean, Darkchild, and Toby Gad alongside others such as Bonnie McKee & Ali Tamposi.
The album found Clarkson continuing to lean heavily on these outside songwriters, with Clarkson being credited as a writer on only 7 of the 18 songs on the record, but the new collaborators work with Clarkson to craft an album which continued to move her career toward an adult contemporary strain of pop-rock and synth-pop, with songs heavy on inspiration and much of the album built on kiss-off anthems like the ones Clarkson made her name on. On one hand, it offered some slight evolution without moving too far from her established strengths, and Kelly’s voice can carry just about any song she’s given, though on the other the album faced criticism for uneven quality, as standouts such as the album's most popular singles shared space on the album with deep cuts like “Einstein,” an admittedly clunky breakup track built around the refrain “dumb plus dumb equals you.” Despite some criticism for uneven quality, the album was a success upon release, debuting #2 on the Billboard 200 with 163,000 sales and even garnering generally respectable reviews, as evidenced by a 62 on Metacritic from the time of release.
On September 5, 2011, Clarkson released the lead single for “Stronger,” titled “Mr. Know-It-All.” A midtempo breakup track written by Ester Dean, the song was a success, giving her a top 5 single un the UK as well as debuting at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching as high as #10 upon the album’s release on Oc
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