Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway (20th anniversary edition) [RCA / LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This 20th anniversary edition brings Breakaway back on vinyl, closing with a live "Beautiful Disaster." The album won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album and has sold an estimated 12 million copies worldwide.

This edition

• 20th anniversary edition

About the album

Winning a TV talent show gets you a record deal; it doesn't automatically get you a sound. On her second album Kelly Clarkson went and found one, trading the R&B of her debut for big, guitar-driven pop rock and a whole new set of collaborators.

Max Martin co-produced "Since U Been Gone," the crunching, shout-along single that changed what pop radio sounded like in the mid-2000s. John Shanks produced the title track and "Gone," former Evanescence men Ben Moody and David Hodges helped shape the ballad "Because of You," and Kara DioGuardi co-wrote much of the second side, including "Walk Away." Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida turns up in the credits too, a welcome Canadian cameo.

It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and stayed in the top 20 for more than a year, and Billboard later ranked it among the greatest Billboard 200 albums of all time. Twenty years on, "Since U Been Gone" remains the most cathartic three minutes ever to come out of a car stereo at a red light.

Also at Kops: more Kelly Clarkson on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On RCA / Legacy, a reissue of the 2004 album.