When Kesha announced her album Rainbow with a music video for “Praying,” it felt like the clouds parting after a very long storm. The stunning gospel-tinged song is a public statement from the singer about gathering her strength and making peace with the complicated set of issues that have kept her from releasing a new album since 2012’s Warrior. Importantly, “Praying” is not about forgiving.
In 2014, Kesha sued superstar producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, alleging that he sexually assaulted her, the most egregious example of a pattern of alleged abuse during their long professional relationship. She also sought to end her contract with Sony Music, which had insisted on enforcing her contractual obligation to work with Dr. Luke.
As of this spring, Dr. Luke is no longer the CEO of Kemosabe Records, the imprint he founded in conjunction with Sony under RCA, but work on Rainbow began long before that change took place. According to a source familiar with the legal conflict between Kesha and Dr. Luke, their respective legal teams reached an agreement allowing her to record without his involvement, while abiding by all the other terms of her contracts. That means all of his other contractual rights in Rainbow — such as his right to a percentage of money earned by the record and his right to sue if he believes the terms of the contract aren’t being met — remain intact.
But while the legal battle continues, Kesha has won a major personal and creative victory, proving once again that she’s a pop artist of extraordinary genius. Her songs and performance on Rainbow are outstanding, but the even bigger win is on the other side of the glass. She has assembled and directed multiple teams of people — some of the finest producers, songwriters and players in Nashville and Los Angeles, among other places — to craft a rich, massive record that one person could never achieve alone. To quote the lyrics she sings in “Woman,” the album’s Beyoncé-esque declaration of independence enhanced by The Dap-Kings Horns: “I run this shit.”
Rainbow is the perfect name for an album that combines so many styles and traditions into an organic, unified whole. The ballad “Rainbow,” produced by Ben Folds, begins with Kesha’s solo voice and acoustic piano, and builds gradually into a Pet Sounds pop symphony. It doesn’t feel at all out of place alongside “Boogie Feet,” a gloriously silly ode to dancing that features snarling grit and goofy rockabilly spook vocals supplied by members of Eagles of Death Metal. Kesha and Dolly Parton duet on “Old Flames (Can’t Hold a Candle to You),” a co-write by Hugh Moffat and Kesha’s mother, Pebe Sebert, with which Dolly had a No. 1 hit in 1980. Here, Nashville instrumental outfit Steelism makes it a honky-tonk waltz in space, and it feels like a natural companion to contemporary dance-centric pop tracks like “Learn to Let Go” and “Boots.”
Kesha’s superb control over her voice as a performer — jaw-dropping high notes aside, her ability to sing so many different songs well is remarkable — is one thread that ties this kaleidoscopic group of songs together, but her authorial voice is what makes the songs likely to live long after this album cycle ends. Several were written by Kesha herself, many she co-wrote with two or more other people, and some she didn’t write, but all of them feel like they come from her. It’s like she’s having a conversation with the listener about the struggles she’s faced down and the role that spiritual exploration has played in her re-centering of herself — from “Hymn,” a song for “the kids with no religion” about setting your own standards for recognizing and embracing your power and worth, to “Finding You,” about the permanence of love and kindness on an impermanent plane of existence.
Five years is enough of a gap to kill just about any career in popular music. Kesha has made it clear that what didn’t kill her has made her one of the most powerful and savvy performers on the planet.
