It feels rather fitting that Kesha release her latest record on America’s Independence Day, July 4th, as this – her 6th LP – truly embodies a sense of freedom, following a tumultuous period surrounding legal battles and sexual assault charges that threaten to derail her exciting pop trajectory.
There’s a whole rabbit hole you can go down regarding what took place between Kesha and former collaborator Dr. Luke, so this review won’t detail such. Instead, it’s to celebrate Kesha and her signature style of frisky hyper-pop on . (Period), an 11-track amalgamation of all the subsects the genre gives way to, with the singer’s tits out-balls to the wall-like energy, bold vocals and reflective lyricism shining through.
With the five singles that have served as a precursor for the album – which have been spread out over the course of a year, with the first taste “Joyride.” having been released on July 4th last year – Kesha is very much expressing that the party girl image she rode to astronomical heights in the 2010’s hasn’t so much been buried, as it has reinvigorated with a new found sense of sexual confidence and burgeoning autonomy. “Joyride.”, with its polka-influence, heavy synth and talk-singing style, felt like the more experienced, albeit dirty, cousin to the likes of “Tik Tok” and “Die Young”, and those wanting that same type of attitude-heavy, dancefloor-ready production will feel neatly fulfilled, with the horny “Boy Crazy.” and the self aware “Red Flag.” following suit; the latter, over a hand-clapping beat, speaking to her bad taste in men, lamenting “All the nice guys left me dead inside, I like chaos dripping head to toe.”
Whilst these tastes of the album – which also include the country-themed “Yippee-Ki-Yay.“, which omits T-Pain‘s feature from the single release and the more energetic “The One.” – let us in on the fact that Kesha will indeed be serving her variations of upbeat pop, . (Period) has an underlying thematic that speaks to something far deeper. Everything she has gone through, as an artist and as a woman, has obviously imprinted on her, and as much as the carefree attitude exuded in the music may suggest she’s merely falling back on the sound that made her famous, it’s because there’s such a “no fucks given” mentality to it all that truly speaks to how free she is. She owns her voice. She owns her sound. She owns her self.
The album’s bookend tracks – opener “Freedom.” and closer “Cathedral.” – are probably the closest the album comes to stepping out of the comfort zone that we believe Kesha plays in. At over 6 minutes, “Freedom.” initially suggests a more introspective Kesha, with her lush vocals oohing and ahhing over a piano introduction that slowly creeps into a scattered piece of electronica. After 2-and-a-half minutes, she exerts that the “bitch is back in town”, and the chaos that the album submits to is felt most prominently here, with a gospel-like chorus thrown in for good measure. “Cathedral.” closes out on the musical embodiment of coming home, as she details a life of pain and turns to the power of self-love and treating her body like a temple. For the girl who for so long was synonymous with glitter on the floor and brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack, “Cathedral.” feels like a full circle moment and a rich presentation of an artist with a voice we never had the chance to appreciate to its fullest.
And it’s that voice that constantly surprises across . (Period)‘s brisk 38 minutes, which feels at its most exciting when it lets both its upbeat production and her vocal ability merge, with the disco-inspired double of “Love Forever.” and “Too Hard.” standing as, arguably, the album’s most melodic examples; if you’ve ever wondered can Kesha run the disco gauntlet set by such a genre pioneer as Donna Summer? The answer lays in “Too Hard.”, which breaks your heart with such poetry as ” I will always love you…hating you is just too hard.”
The fans that have stayed with Kesha beyond her hype days of “Take It Off” and “Blow” are all too aware that she’s a master songwriter and possesses a voice that never needed the bratty twang and auto-tune that made her such a success. The party girl image was fun, without question, but her hardships have given way to some truly reflective material in the years since; through circumstance, however, most never got to hear such. Now, with a dominant . (Period) to her delivery, Kesha is both returning as a seasoned veteran and emerging as a new voice, unafraid to speak her mind and get a little dirty in the process.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
. (Period) is available now through Kesha Records.
