If you were thinking that her recent collaborations, with her sort of mother-in-law Reba McEntire, meant that Kelly Clarkson was now doing Country music, you were dead wrong. The radio mix of “Piece By Piece” has now been released with a beautiful black and white video. Oh, and it’s pop with a little bit of power and dance in it.
The lyrics to this song are about a woman, who’s still putting her ideas of men in relationships together. Hurt by the divorce of her parents at age 5, Kelly is a classic example of many have gone through the divorce of their parents , who are still trying to piece together how relationships work as adults and having to restore trust issues. This is well described in the lyrics.
One positive note is that the healing is occurring within her, which makes the overall feeling of the song really positive and hopeful.
Kelly’s been in a great relationship since 2012 and married since 2013, with Brandon Blackstock, Reb’s stepson. As much as this song describes her dad leaving when she was young, the chorus is all dedicated to the love of her life, her husband, and him showing her that “a man can be kind and a father could stay”.
Not only dad and husband are being compared in the song. Kelly also compares herself as a parent to her dad’s parenting skills: “I will never leave her like you left me”, she sings among a few other references. Kelly already has a daughter with her husband and is currently pregnant with a son. The video for the song actually introduces daughter River Rose at the end.
Musically, the original album version of the song almost sounded like a march. The beat did, though, fit in with today’s sound, but still there’s more of an electronic sound added to the radio mix. This has updating it to be very radio friendly. I can already imagine this blasting out of the speakers of my car.
The radio mix is showcasing that Kelly’s vocals are incredibly versatile. While other singers can only convince in one or two genres, Kelly has embarked on many throughout her career.
When she started out, she tried her hand at pop and R&B (“Miss Independent”), before switching to a mature rock sound (“Behind These Hazel Eyes”) and, at times, mixing that with a bit of electronic (“Stronger”), as well as stepping out to country on several occasions, mainly with Reba.
I knew there was a good reason why she’s one of the 100 Greatest Women In Music according to VH1. And now, she’s coming together as a person, who know what may come next.
