Kelly ClarksonMy DecemberOut SummerClarkson’s previous album, 2004′s Breakaway, sold nearly 11 million copies — but the original American Idol winner still had higher aspirations for her latest release. “My first two albums are very scattered, with different producers and different writers,” she says. “They’re collections of songs, not albums by any means.” Clarkson wanted her third album to be more cohesive, to tell the story of a tumultuous two years in her life — during which she won two Grammys, went through a rough breakup, hit her mid-twenties and tried to grow up. Against her label’s wishes, she opted to write the songs herself, with members of her band. The resulting album, produced by David Kahne (who worked on the Strokes’ First Impressions of Earth), ranges from alt-country (she names Patty Griffin and Ryan Adams as influences) to Foo Fighters-style rock to bare-bones acoustic ballads. “Never Again” and “One Minute,” the candidates for the first single, are both rockers; Clarkson calls the former, penned about the aforementioned breakup, “one of the most bitter songs I’ve ever written in my life.” Kahne brought in an unlikely guest musician for about half the tracks: ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt.”He played on the rock ones and also on some of the ones with a more singer-songwriter vibe,” says Clarkson. “He’s a badass on the bass — he can play anything.”