REVIEW: Kesha's "Gag Order" via Kemosabe

I still haven’t heard High Road, the 2020 album by the LA born superstar, so to me the last one is Rainbow. Rainbow really won me over in 2017 with its inspirational message and push back against an abuser and I don’t think I realized at the time how important that would be to me. When it was released I was shown the record by someone who was also assaulting me. But also I felt a certain gender euphoria over some of the more party centric songs though I wouldn’t allow myself to feel that either for a few more years.

Moving on though, immediately Gag Order is a much different record. Right from the offset with “Something to Believe In” it’s raw, it's haunting. Kesha lets you know from the project’s opening moments that this is an album where she’s working shit out again and the entire thing has that very energy and melodramatic structure. That effect continues right on into “Eat the Acid,” another piece of synth-based balladry. Here, Kesha warns you not to follow the path she’s been on with lines that reiterate over and over again that this is a cautionary tale. Putting the bare bones instrumentation aside I also just really love the overdubbed backing vocals that make lines feel huge even when they’re sung as a near whisper.


You don’t want to be changed like it changed me.


Continuing on, “Living in My Head” sounds off the mic and the way she cuts off words and phrases communicates to me that she never had any intention of editing any of this except to add some backing vocals. It’s a real raw moment. As a final highlight, “Only Love Can Save Us Now,” which served as the final of the three singles, is the one song that sort of comes across as you’d expect from Kesha’s past records. In the Rainbow-esque track, Kesha comes through with a big hopeful anthem that offers a timeline of the past couple of years. All coming down to a manifesto that all we need truly is love.


I guess the point I’m trying to make is that while all these songs are so raw and bare they all also have a life of their own. I can’t really find anything that isn’t a highlight in its own unique way while serving the overall tone of the entire project. To me, “Hate Me Harder” is the final  chapter and “Happy” is an epilogue. A bonus. But if that’s the biggest issue I can find in a record then I can’t really complain about any of it.


Our Rating - 8/10

  1. Something to Believe In
  2. Eat the Acid
  3. Living in My Head
  4. Fine Line
  5. Only Love Can Save Us Now
  6. All I Need is You
  7. The Drama
  8. Ram Dass Interlude
  9. Too Far Gone
  10. Peace & Quiet
  11. Only Love Reprise
  12. Hate Me Harder
  13. Happy

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