After dominating the pop charts of the early 2010s with her low bassline and bratty-pop style, Kesha fell into a five-year-long silence during a highly publicized and acrimonious legal battle against her former producer, wherein she alleged sexual abuse and civil harassment. Kesha lost appeal after appeal before dropping the charges in 2016.
Following this, she released her third album, “Rainbow,” which marked a dramatic turn away from her debaucherous roots.
Now the party girl is back with her fourth album “High Road.”
On “Rainbow,” Kesha crooned, “Dress in black, act so heartless, but now/ I see that colors are everything”.
In this new era, she has swapped out the “kaleidoscopes in [her] hairdo” for an inky, mussed mullet; don’t worry, it’s not a regression into her dark days.
Kesha looks and sounds more maniacal in this new evolution, but she’s actually more in control than ever.
With a haphazard energy that seems simultaneously accidental and meticulously cultivated, Kesha furthers her narrative by giving nuance to the raw feelings unleashed on the unharnessed ballads
of “Rainbow.”
“High Road” doesn’t negate any of Kesha’s past discography. Instead, it’s unflinchingly honest about the way that she has and may continue to evolve as a person.
The first song on her album, “Tonight,” opens with tinges of a piano ballad only to switch to an obnoxiously auto-tuned rap and dizzying electric beat.
A cliché record scratch would not have been out of place. The false start lays open the conflict between Kesha and her own public image at the heart of the album.
“My Own Dance” takes over quickly with a meta hook, taking a playful jab at Kesha’s Jack-swigging 2009 alter ego, Ke$ha.
It’s an irresistibly catchy song about the dichotomy of “party girl” and “tragedy” and her exasperation with both labels.
She construes this carefree attitude with the raunchy lyrics, “But life’s a bitch, so come on, shake your tits and fuck it.”
The titular track is rife with the same sleazy Ke$ha, but it’s apparent that the self-awareness of her previous album “Rainbow” has not been forgotten. “High Road” is about Kesha partying with a vengeance, because that’s just who she is, not just an escape mechanism.
On “Honey,” Kesha rehashes a confidante’s betrayal of the “golden rule” through girl group vocals heavily influenced by ’90s R&B, further solidifying the specific nostalgia the album encapsulates just when you think it will only be a resurrection of the old Ke$ha.
“Cowboy Blues” and “Father Daughter Dance” serve up slow-tempo heartbreak tunes between delightful servings of glitter pop.
The latter is a devastatingly dolorous number where Kesha is brutally honest about how vulnerable she felt during her abuse and in her healing process with the aching lyrics, “Would he have protected me from all the bad shit? The bad men?”
“Shadow” feels like a sister song to “Praying,” the zenith of her 2017 album. The track fuses gospel-inspired vocals and F6 whistle tones predictably, but the end result is still thoroughly enjoyable.
However, the lyrics mark a clear emotional progression for Kesha.
On “Praying,” Kesha crawled through the desert only to channel divine forgiveness for her abusers.
Now on “Shadow,” she’s tripping in the desert while bluntly telling critics, “If you’re here to throw shade/ then you’re in the wrong place.”
What’s most enjoyable is the chorus, which is filled with sonically pleasing invitations to suck it.
“Chasing Thunder’’ sounds like a single that was meant to be on “Rainbow” but got hit with a shot of adrenaline and a couple thousand volts.
Lively drums and gravelly vocals complement a gospel rhythm as Kesha sees the silver lining in her club nomad ways. Rightfully so, it makes her latest album sound instrumentally and lyrically one dimensional.
In the wake of #MeToo, Kesha is redefining what it means to be a survivor. Victims don’t need to continually live in the shadows, cloaked in piety or demureness.
“High Road” is the epitome of “well-behaved women seldom make history” and Kesha makes it clear that she’s back on her bullshit and ready to misbehave.
