L.A. born Nashville raised potty mouthed bad gurrl cum poet rawker Kesha (the artist formerly known as Ke$ha) dropped her latest bomb in the early days of 2020. Throughout High Road the outspoken singer songwriter speaks her truth through 15 tracks and near 50 minutes of contemporary urban EDM infused pop music spiked with ample rhymes and angry beats. Mostly she just comes out swinging. “I love saying FUCK in all my songs, ’cause the only people got time to get offended are the one’s who’ve probably never gotten off” (Shadow). “I’m taking the high road, I’m high as fuck and these assholes won’t shut up” (High Road).”Hey I don’t do that dance, I only do my own dance, hey I don’t do that dance, don’t circumcise my circumstance” (My Own Dance).
For all her bluster though Kesha is more than capable of turning out a tender ballad or two. The tuff as nails party girl act is ultimately betrayed by the aching vulnerability she shows in Father Daughter Dance.
I never stood a fighting chance
In all my days, from my cradle to my grave
I’ll never have a father-daughter dance
I’m sorry I’m always so anxious and numb
Just sorry I’m fucked up
I really just don’t know how to love, how to trust
I try but when I talk about him
I should probably cry but
He’s nothing, he’s no one, a stranger
I never stood a fighting chance
In all my days, from my cradle to my grave
I’ll never have a father-daughter dance
But, God, I’m so lonely
I fuck with my phone
Hoping it’ll help me with my anxiety
But it don’t
I don’t even know if I wanna have kids
I don’t wanna fuck ’em up the way he did
Sometimes I wonder, if I’d had a dad
Would he have protected me
From all the bad shit, the bad men?
Would I even be the same person?
Somebody to walk me down the aisle
Somebody to help with the flat tire
Somebody to walk me down the aisle
The worst part of this is I’m not even sad
How do I miss something I never had?
I never really stood a fighting chance
In all my days, from my cradle to my grave
I’ll never have a father-daughter dance
I’m sure that at the time you tried your best
But all of this has made me who I am
It’s not all anthemic ballads and bad ass beats though. Kesha gets all oom-pah-pah on the Kurt Weill show tune sounding Potato Song (Cuz I Want To). For real. This woman may very well end up writing her own operas or Broadway musical someday, she’s certainly shown signs of being more than capable of it. And then there’s the delightfully quaint ukulele strumming Cowboy Blues as well as the quirky splattering of vintage video game bleeps and bloops on Birthday Suite.
Production wise High Road is anything but typical dance inducing fare, there’s ample amounts of real guitar and piano throughout. More than anything Kesha’s latest gives off more than just a whiff of 2020’s pseudo-modernism in popular music, electro-morphing into a kind of holographic Carole King meets Joni Mitchell meets Ani DiFranco for a new generation. Big shoes? Perhaps, but we most definitely have not heard the last of Kesha.
7.5/10
2020 Song Of The Day Club
Bi-Weekly Record Review 5/26