Kelly Clarkson has officially revealed the cover for her forthcoming single, "My Life Would Suck Without You" - the first single to be taken from her fourth album, which sees her collaborating once again with Max Martin and Dr. Luke. The single is due to premiere on radio in less than a few weeks, for a radio add date of 18th January, with the album's release date tentatively scheduled to be 16th March 2009. "Rolling Stone" magazine calls the album 'totally awesome' and 'stocked with primo pop hits'.

Producer Dr. Luke, who co-wrote "Since U Been Gone," and has sinceworked with Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and P!nk, has told "Entertainment Weekly" that a new Kelly Clarkson single could be out as soon as December. The song is said to be entitled "My Life Would Suck Without You," and could be seen as a Part B to Clarkson's monster 2004 hit, "Since U Been Gone." Dr. Luke says he started developing the new song with pop maestro and "Since U Been Gone" collaborator Max Martin years ago. "After 'Since U Been Gone', we wrote all these songs for Kelly. This one, which I think is the first single, we had the chorus a while ago and added the verse more recently. They were going to have it out on 20th November, but it just got too late. So now they're thinking 8th December for a worldwide release, but I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being early January" (A rep for Clarkson says the single has yet to be chosen). Dr. Luke says. "It's sick. She sings a song in two hours and kills it. You're just, like, 'holy s---.' She has powerful lungs. She’s like the Lance Armstrong of vocal chords."

Kelly, who is currently in the process of writing and recording her 4th studio album with a wide variety of producers, has left a blog message, saying that she has just recorded three songs with Sam Watters and Louis Biancaniello; both Sam and Louis co-wrote "Anytime" on Kelly's debut album, and have since worked with the likes of Keri Hilson ("Energy"), Natasha Bedingfield ("Love Like This"), Blake Lewis ("Break Anotha") and UK artist, Amy Studt ("Chasing The Light"). A USA radio DJ has mentioned that 'industry insiders' are buzzing that the first single from the project, which will have a big set-up before the album launch in winter 2008, will hit by the end of summer 2008.

Ryan Tedder, who is writing with Kelly for her up-coming fourth album, due later in 2008, has spoken in Australia about the material, following up his comments in March, saying, "I'm a sucker for solid, memorable melodies. My songs could have come about 10 years ago - I'm not interested in fad songs. I emailed Kelly Clarkson the other day, saying, "I want whatever songs we do to stick around." I'm lucky to be working on the project. I'm not trying to do anything specific other than make great songs that are a little different from what people would expect."

Ben Moody, who wrote "Because Of You" and "Addicted" with Kelly for "Breakaway," has spoken about how the collaboration came to fruition, saying, "She called me several times and I never answered because it was a private number. Anyway she finally left a message, saying, "Hey, this is Kelly Clarkson, I'm a big fan, I wanna know if you wanna write on my next record." I called her back, she said she was staying at a hotel, I went over to the hotel and she just sang me "Because Of You," no music, she just had this idea. It's brilliant. I mean look what happened. You know what I mean. I didn't change it much at all. She sang it into a tape recorder, and I went home and wrote music for that. 15 minutes. It was very fast and organic. Her songs are awesome."