Kesha’s new album, High Road, was released on Jan. 31, marking her return to dance-pop along with bold notes of country and trap. This amalgamation of seemingly contrasting styles comes together to make a cohesive and strong album with tracks just as infectious as any of the singer’s earlier party-pop pieces.
This album follows Rainbow, dropped in 2017 after a turbulent legal battle between Kesha and her longtime producer Lukasz (Dr. Luke) Gottwald, whom Kesha sued for sexual assault. While Rainbow was ripe with ballads and meditations on forgiveness and healing, High Road is an ode to Kesha’s earlier career. It’s an explosive celebration of freedom and sexuality that demonstrates the singer’s ability to grow as a person and as an artist.
In a Wall Street Journal interview, Kesha explained: “I want High Road to be my defiant statement that I can still make happy music, I can still make pop music, and I can still be happy, and at the same time have the juxtaposition of the really emotional and intense — it’s not that the vulnerability isn’t there, but I really believe that High Road is the first record I’ve put out where I feel like I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone.”
There’s a healthy dose of high-energy tunes along with the occasional slowed-down ballad on High Road. But while the album is a sizable 15 songs long, listeners will be hard-pressed to find one that’s not a catchy hit in its own way. Although some songs are weaker than others, they’re all effective and well-executed — anthems, if you will.
Not only that, the album is bursting with experimentation and creativity. Tracks grace listeners with whispers, yelling, drawn-out notes, off-key pitches, and demonstrations of Kesha’s impressive vocal range. It even showcases the singer’s rapping talent, which was never seen in Rainbow. Similar to “Dinosaur,” a track from her debut album Animal, her rap style is sing-songy, at times approaching cheerleading but somehow imbued with even more sass.
High Road is a major success in what it was meant to do: capture Kesha’s defiance, goofiness, and tenderness all in a reclamation of her party animal persona. In “My Own Dance” she challenges expectations for the album in lyrics like: “‘You’re the party girl, you’re the tragedy’ / But the funny thing’s I’m fucking everything.” This badass empowerment is contrasted with the silly “Cowboy Blues” lyrics that are sung in one long breath: “Do you ever lie in bed with your three cats / And get obsessed with some boy you met / One time, three years ago in Nashville? / And you can’t remember his last name.”
These two songs, musically, are also a great example of Kesha’s adaptability. “My Own Dance” has strong, consistent drum beats paired with twangy electric guitar while “Cowboy Blues” is a country acoustic bop with minimal instrumentals. Despite the odds, the album manages to effortlessly marry these two styles together in a way that works.
Furthermore, although Kesha has established she’s a strong woman in Rainbow, on High Road she isn’t afraid to be vulnerable and to show that one doesn’t have to be strong all the time. She breaks down in “Father Daughter Dance” about her experience growing up without a father: “I don’t even know if I wanna have kids / I don’t wanna fuck ’em up the way you did / And sometimes I wonder, if I’d had a dad / Would he have protected me from all the bad shit?”
Kesha doesn’t shy away from sexuality either. In “Kinky” she unapologetically sings about a healthy polyamorous relationship that’s open to getting freaky with a third partner of any gender: “Baby, you’re my lover / We can go find some others / As long as it’s not a secret / We can keep it kinky.” “BFF” is another track that helps normalize LGBTQ+ relationships, featuring singing by Kesha’s close friend, Wrabel, who’s a gay man. The lyrics, sung by both singers, explicitly state: “Neither of our boyfriends are even invited.”
High Road is a breathtaking combination of Kesha’s pop roots with a mature, raw message. It’s experimentation at its best, taking on a risky combination of country, pop, and trap that manages to be executed masterfully. The result is a dynamic album with powerhouse tracks that cover anything a fan, new or old, could ask for.
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
