Kesha is back! Her new album Gag Order dropped today from Kemosabe/RCA Records. The long-awaited follow-up to 2020’s High Road features 13 tracks produced by Rick Rubin. The album’s lead singles — “Fine Line” and “Eat the Acid” — show a hard-fought evolution from her days as pop’s reckless party girl in the early 2010s to her present day. “There’s a fine line I’ve been walking/It’s exhausting to balance/ This is where you f-kers pushed me/Don’t be surprised when stuff gets ugly,” she warns on the former, while on the latter, she draws from her experimentation with LSD and transcendental meditation for a modern twist on 60s psychedelic pop.
Before the album’s release, Kesha also released a song called “Only Love Can Save Us Now,” which combines elements of country, rap, and gospel.
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Gag Order features jarring cover art depicting Kesha’s distorted face being squeezed by a translucent plastic bag and numerous co-writing credits from her mother, Pebe Sebert, with Justin Tranter and The Ramones.
Kesha rose to fame in the early 2010s with her debut single “Tik Tok,” an infectious party anthem symbolic of every teenage girl’s rebellious period, which rocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and quickly became an international phenomenon. Since then, Kesha has released four studio albums, numerous singles and collaborated with some of the biggest names in the music industry.
Kesha’s music is often described as a mix of pop, hip-hop, and rock, with her lyrics often focusing on themes of self-empowerment, female empowerment, and rebellion. Her music has earned her numerous awards, including five MTV Music Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, and one Grammy Award.
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In addition to her musical career, Kesha is also an outspoken advocate of the LGBT+ community, at one time identifying as bisexual. However, in 2022, she clarified that she preferred not to label her sexuality, stating, “I’m not gay. I’m not straight. I don’t know what I am. I love people. I refuse to be anything, really, except open to it all.”
In June 2022, Kesha revealed on Instagram that she is a “dom,” short for dominatrix. She’s also a vocal opponent of the music industry’s mistreatment of women. This stems from her legal proceedings against Dr. Luke in October 2014 for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, emotional abuse, and violation of California business practices. After nearly a year of litigation, Kesha sought a preliminary injunction to be released from Kemosabe Records. Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich denied this request on February 19, 2016. The case was dismissed by Kornreich on April 6, 2016, saying that the five-year statute of limitations had run out on the two most specific rape allegations, one occurring in 2005 and the other occurring in 2008.
On her new album, the party girl swagger is replaced by something more vulnerable. “I feel like I’m giving birth to the most intimate thing I’ve ever created” the singer told Rolling Stone. “It’s scary being vulnerable. The fact that I have compiled an entire record of these emotions, anger, insecurity, anxiety, grief, pain, and regret is so nerve-racking — but it’s also so healing.”
