Cast your minds back to 2009. Think low-rise jeans, velvet tracksuits (shudder) and chunky statement belts. Chances are the song that wormed its way into your brain that year was Ke$ha’s infectious banger ‘TiK ToK’. A swaggering star was born, one who got the party started and brushed her gnashers with Jack Daniel’s. More than a decade on, Kesha (she retired the dollar sign in 2014) is no longer swigging from bottles of whiskey. The party’s stopped.
She’s back with fifth album ‘Gag Order’, the follow-up to 2020’s ‘High Road’, a deeply introspective body of work far removed from the glitter-smeared hits her fans, the Animals, were reared on. The singer has been put through the wringer the last couple of years: her legal battle against producer Dr Luke, real name Lukasz Gottwald, who she accused of sexual and emotional abuse, allegations he has always denied, is ongoing.
In the manifesto for her latest offering, she explained: “I let my darkness see the light.” Over the course of 11 tracks, produced by industry legend Rick Rubin, listeners are given an access-all-areas pass to an emotional exorcism as Kesha does some serious soul-searching. On trippy synth-splashed lead single ‘Eat the Acid’, she reflects on a spiritual awakening she had in the summer of 2020: “The universe said now’s your time/And told me everything’s alright.”
No punches are pulled on ‘Fine Line’, the plinking piano and string arrangement providing a false sense of calm before a blistering storm of lacerating lyrics: All the doctors and lawyers cut the tongue out my mouth/I’ve been hiding my anger, but bitch look at me now. It’s a sequel of sorts to 2017’s howl-at-the-sky anthem Praying: “I’ll bring thunder, I’ll bring rain/Oh, when I’m finished, they won’t even know your name”, she once sang.
There’s barely a whiff of chart-troubling hits. Kesha has said that was not the name of the game this time around. ‘Only Love Can Save Us Now’ is the closest thing to a bonafide bop, snarky verses riding along a pulsing beat that unexpectedly breaks into a Kumbaya-style chorus, complete with hand claps. Hate Me Harder pricks the ears, too, a mid-tempo middle-finger at trolls: “You say I’m a has-been/You say I look older/Nobody was asking”
Sonic risks are taken, but they don’t always pay off. ‘Take The Drama’, a tumult of squelching bass that concludes with Kesha’s chant-like desire to be reincarnated as a, er, house cat. The record finishes on a high note with ballad ‘Happy’, bubbling with hope, vulnerability and Kesha’s sweetest vocals to date; in fact, there is a notable (and appreciable) absence of Autotune throughout. Probing, purging and unflinching personal, ‘Gag Order’ – despite its title – is the embodiment of an artist who has found their voice.
