ALBUM REVIEW: Ke$ha – Warrior
posted in: Music News • Pop • Reviews & Playlists
When sitting down to review Ke$ha’s latest album, Warrior, I found it impossible to resist digging into her catalog for research. Only three years have past since “Tik Tok” impacted radio waves around the world, but one look at the sales and popularity of this still young pop starlet and one might believe she’s at least hit the half decade point. The truth is, Kesha has only just begun to make her mark in pop music, and her latest effort proves there is much (MUCH) more glitter and innuendo awaiting us in years to come.
If you have never experienced Kesha outside of the radio singles, you need to be prepared for a slightly different experience when reaching for one of her albums. While the glitter-loving songstress is known for packing many potential singles on her releases, usually including some of her awkward attempts at rapping, each album is also stuffed with progressive material that makes it clear Kesha could do so much more with her career if desired. Warrior makes this more evident than ever, with only a handful of cuts coming across like disposable radio tracks, and I don’t want to get hopes too high here, but there is a cohesion to the glam pop queen’s efforts this time around that leads one to believe there is a much grander vision at play than we’ve been told.
Kicking things off by blending her newer sound with songwriting elements fans will find familiar, “Warrior,” kicks off Kesha’s new album with all the glory and pizazz a pop record deserves. The hook is huge, the rhymes about club life are intact, and the attitude is second-to-none. This is what I like to call “typical Kesha,” and it’s never executed more slickly than on Warrior. As you dig through the hit “Die Young,” as well as the early leak “C’Mon,” it becomes clearer and clearer that there is an evolution taking place within Kesha’s sound. She’s still very rooted in dance floor singles, and that will likely never change, but the focus on well-written lyrics and wordplay has never been stronger. Tracks like “Dirty Love,” “All That Matters,” and “Love Into The Light” offer more substance than Kesha’s entire debut album, and that’s on the extreme end of the spectrum. There is actual replay value to the whole, and I don’t just mean on the radio.
Warrior is real pop music, albeit complimented with a disposable facade, and it will sell to a ridiculous amount of music listeners with little effort. Some longtime fans will hate her new sound, and others will continue to not “get it,” but anyone listening to this album with an open mind is destined to discover a pop record that could go on to rival Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream in terms of lasting ability and pop cultural impact. 2013 will be the year of Ke$ha, and with a record like this there is no reason she shouldn’t find herself atop the Billboard charts for weeks, if not months to come.
If you enjoy Ke$ha, be sure to check out OS artist Casey Desmond!
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Review written by: James Shotwell