Order Kesha Gag Album Review
Luckily for Kesha Sebert, her legal battles have garnered more attention than her music for nearly a decade. It’s been a long time since her 2009 US number one single “Tik Tok” – the title of which predates the social media giant – heralded the arrival of the Los Angeles singer as a heavier version of Pink or Katy Perry and claimed to brush her teeth with Jack Daniels and insisted, “The party doesn’t start until I walk in.”
She has been fighting the producer of this hit, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald. She tried to sue him for “inflicting emotional distress, gender-based hate crimes and discrimination in the workplace.” A judge eventually dismissed this, and Gottwald is now suing her for defamation and breach of contract. The trial is scheduled to begin in July.
Her inability to speak openly about her legal situation explains the title of this fifth album and the cover, which features her face suffocated by a plastic bag. She comes closest to detailing the lyrics in Fine Line: “All the doctors and lawyers cut my tongue out of my mouth/I hid my anger, but the bitch is looking at me now.” But from the first minute, he pulls it off The music made it painfully clear that not everything is okay.
In the past, she has made some attempts to continue being the offbeat pop singer of her early days. Her latest 2020 album, High Road, featured the computer game sound of Birthday Suit and an annoyingly eccentric track titled Potato Song (Cuz I Want To). In contrast, Gag Order is by far their darkest and weirdest release.
She’s done it with legendary producer Rick Rubin, whose hands-free approach has always been a mystery, and in this case she said it involved making her cry for the first two hours of each day. The sounds he oversees are simple and minimalist. Only Love Can Save Us Now is based on a rumbling bass note and a clicking typewriter before descending into a wild gospel chorus. The drama features sharp, terrifying electronic noises, over which Kesha sarcastically screams, “Are we having fun yet?” Then the tone changes completely as she repeatedly chirps, “In the next life, I want to come back as a house cat.”
It’s a disorienting listen, but as a reflection of a mind that’s understandably restless in the long run, it’s a poignantly honest work. Who knows what she’ll think of when she can finally speak openly.
RCA
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