High Road - Kesha: Review
is an LA based pop singer who blew up in the early 2010's off of some huge viral singles and a pair of successful albums.After a long break that included plenty of non music related drama she emerged with a brand new sound on the much more personal and ballad driven Rainbow. Now on her fourth record High Road she looks to blend her old and new styles, and even some other sounds we've never heard from her before into a defining moment.
Review By Lavender:
Kesha is an artist that I've always liked just a little bit less than most people. When she was at her commercial peak she was dropping big hits, but critics we're going after the short-sightedness of her music. And given how dated some of those songs feel just ten years later proves they were right. Rainbow was without a doubt a huge improvement but I still wasn't quite as sold as some of the critics calling the record a masterpiece. The singles were excellent sure but the record had depth issues and I still wondered to this day if Kesha was capable of commanding attention for an entire record. While there are moments on High Road that absolutely blew me away, a few of the worst songs I've heard all year also show up in the tracklist and make for an incredibly inconsistent listen.
The record has very little sonic cohesiveness so its not a story that needs to be told in any particular order. We can start with the good, and it is VERY good. After a rough start we get into a killer string of tracks starting with the incredible title track High Road. The hook on the song is absolutely heavenly and hearing Kesha singing that passionately and unabated is a real treat that I can't stop coming back to. The verses sound straight out of 2010 and I have to admit that they absolutely bang as hard as anything she's ever written, making this track a seamless and perfect pairing of her sounds. Shadow is one of the more effective and inspiring ballads on the track and even though it is a touch underwritten Kesha makes up for it with some excellent vocal work that totally sells the track. Honey is another treat in the form of an absolutely hilarious song with a totally unstoppable attitude that sees Kesha getting slick as FUCK in the verses and I just can't get enough of it.
Resentment is a track that features vocal contributions from Sturgill Simpson and Brian Wilson of all people but it comes out really well as a pseudo-country ballad the group all work very well together. Birthday Suit is another one of the albums best offerings that sees Kesha bringing a vocal swagger that is absolutely insane. Parts of this track sound like my favorite Kitty tracks straight out of 2012 and the expertly weaved sample of the Mario theme song is just icing on the cake. BFF is one of the most emotionally effective tracks on the album and an element of that may be personal sentiment. The song is charming and adorable tale of Kesha and her GBF that makes me want to cry in the absolute best way. If The Weeknd is going to make you want to call you ex this is going to make you want to call all your best girlfriends and tell them you love them and invite them over to watch Heathers. Two of the last three tracks on the record Father Daughter Dance and Summer are slower paced songs that have a pretty compelling and unique sentiments that fit really well at the end of the record.
This record has some truly awful songs to pair with its highlights but before that lets look at some of the less offensive tracks. Tonight was a single I wanted to like given how much raw attitude it has but the hook is a total mess and when its paired with Kesha underselling it vocally it makes the song a bit of a hard one to sit through. Raising Hell was another single that I enjoy parts of when the song speaks to my inner thot and commands her to vibe to it. But in the front of my mind I can't help but think that the clashing of sounds really doesn't fit the tracks attitude and message, and that the Big Freedia feature is so underutilized and could have gone a long way to making the track better.
The rest of the tracks can be really rough, and there are more of them than I think most of the Kesha stans are comfortable admitting to. Little Bit Of Love is a painfully generic anthemic pop song that sounds much more like a nondescript one hit wonder pop tune than anything Kesha actually wrote. Kinky was a song I really wanted to like but jesus christ the intro is hard to sit through and that is only the beginning. The hook is brain numbingly corny and the dry electronic instrumental is very taxing. I do actually think the Ke$ha feature is a funny idea that goes over pretty well but it is the only redeemable part of the song. Chasing Thunder is a track that is completely pointless as it sounds like a B-Side from the Rainbows era and doesn't fit the rest of the record at all, plus its incredibly boring so I have no idea why it was included here.
The only thing worse on this record than when Kesha is being boring or even actively painful, is when she is being so cringey it makes me with I didn't have ears. My Own Dance puts this on display loud and clear with the "Don't circumcise my circumstance" lyric on the hook as the tracks defining feature is its cringeyness. Cowboy Blues is a song I can almost see the appeal of, but the girlish vocals and basic instrumental don't really do a lot for me. On top of this some of the "omg I'm so relatable" style lyrics on this song are very very painful.
But by far the worst thing on this record, and maybe the worst thing I've heard all year, including Justin Bieber's new single Yummy, is Potato Song. The instrumental that kicks this song off is what happens when somebody listens to Earl Sweatshirt's East but completely mis-understands what makes it so brilliant. The terrible circus instrumental is met with a wandering vocal harmony and some of the worst lyrics I've heard in a very long time. Ultimately the track sounds like an edgy 13 year old with no taste trying to make her own Courtney Barnett song and I absolutely cannot believe this was allowed to be on the record.
It feels weird to be so critical of a record that has high points as great as High Road, BFF and Birthday Suit but the album is just that inconsistent. Any given song on this album can run the full scale from shining pop anthems to embarrassing experiments and I can only wonder about what could have been if the album had some better quality control. 5.5/10
