It has been a long time coming but Kesha is back with a brand new album titled, Rainbow and it is clearly her most personal album yet.

The album is highlighted by Kesha’s comeback single, ‘Praying’.

 

 

‘Praying’ was released early last month and served as Kesha’s emotional and powerful response to her long legal battle with producer Dr. Luke.

On ‘Praying’, Kesha sings, “Why, if there is a God…have I been abandoned by everyone and everything, I’ve ever known and ever loved…God give me a sign or I’ll have to give up…please just let me die….being alive hurts too much.”

She appears to speak directly to Dr. Luke when she sings, “You almost had me fooled, told me that I was nothing without you. That after everything you’ve done, I can thank you for how strong I have become. Because you brought the flames and you put me through hell, I had to learn how to fight for myself and we both know the truth I could tell, I’ll just say this, I wish you farewell, I hope you’re somewhere praying…”

 

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Along with the song, she released a letter to her fans where she says, “Praying,” my first single in almost four years, comes out today. I have channeled my feelings of severe hopelessness and depression, I’ve overcome obstacles, and I have found strength in myself even when it felt out of reach. I’ve found what I had thought was an unobtainable place of peace. This song is about coming to feel empathy for someone else even if they hurt you or scare you. It’s a song about learning to be proud of the person you are even during low moments when you feel alone. It’s also about hoping everyone, even someone who hurt you, can heal” (read the full letter below).

 

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Kesha also released the song, ‘Woman’ which was reportedly in response to US President Donald Trump’s “grab a woman by her genitalia” comments that surfaced last year.

 

 

In an exclusive essay written for Rolling Stone Kesha spoke openly about the song saying, “Musically, I really couldn’t be more proud of this record. I think that this album sonically sounds more like the music I listen to than anything else I’ve ever done in the past. I love the music I have made before, but it was funny to me that I would go play huge EDM festivals and then I’d go onto my tour bus and get out my record player and put on Iggy Pop, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, T Rex, Dolly Parton, James Brown, Beatles, The Sweet; any of those records. They all couldn’t be more different sonically from what I was doing, even though the same wild spirit was there” (you can read that full essay HERE).

 

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Prior to the release of Rainbow, Kesha also released a track called, ‘Learn to Let Go’ and as she wrote in an essay published for The Huffington Post, the song’s title is more than, well just a title.

 

 

She wrote, ‘Learn to Let Go” is more than a song title… it’s become one of my mantras over the last few years. As much as our past creates who we are, we can’t let it define us or hold us back. And especially if you’ve been through something hard, and we all have, you can’t hold on to resentment because it’s like a poison. You have to learn to let go of those bad feelings and move forward.

We all have bias based on whatever our own story and life experience has been, but really the only way to truly evolve is to let the past be the past and move forward with an open heart. If you let your demons haunt you, they will haunt you forever. Learn from your mistakes but don’t dwell on them, and if you feel like someone has wronged you, let that be their problem? not yours.

‘Learn to Let Go’ was also one of the first songs she wrote for the album, “I wrote this song with my mom, Pebe Sebert, and the first day of the writing session we wrote this great melody but we couldn’t figure out what the song was about. We only had one more day booked with my friend and co-writer on this song, Stuart Crichton. I was so frustrated because we had this amazing chorus melody but no words, and I was so sad because I wondered if we would finish it?”

You can check out the full essay from The Huffington Post HERE.

 

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Another song off Rainbow is a song called, ‘Hymn’; a song that Kesha wrote with her mother Pebe Sebert.

 

 

In an essay written exclusively for Mic, Kesha revealed the meaning behind the song saying,

“This song is dedicated to all the idealistic people around the world who refuse to turn their backs on progress, love and equality whenever they are challenged. It’s dedicated to the people who went out into the streets all over the world to protest against racism, hate and division of any kind…It’s also dedicated to anyone who feels like they are not understood by the world or respected for exactly who they are. It’s a hopeful song about all of these people — which I consider myself one of — and the power that we all have when we all come together.”

She also revealed what she hoped listeners would get from the song,

“I hope this is one of those songs that will find and connect with people who feel like outcasts, especially young people today growing up with the omnipresent internet. I really feel for them, because bullying today is so scary due to all of the technology. It breaks my heart to hear about kids being bullied online at such a young and sensitive age. I believe no one should be subjected to harassment and hate, and that includes online. I know from personal experience those kinds of comments can be much more than hurtful.”

 

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You can read Kesha’s full essay HERE.

 

So, what inspired Rainbow?

Well according to the ‘Tik Tok’ singer, there’s an extra-terrestrial aspect to it.

She told The Zach Sang Show, “I was in Joshua Tree, totally sober, let me preface — completely f—ing sober … I think people would be like, ‘She was on acid’ or something. I wasn’t. I was on nothing. I was a totally sober Sally, just a lady in the desert,” Kesha said. “I look up in the sky and there’s a bunch of spaceships.”

She added, “I swear to God, there were like five to seven, and I don’t know why I didn’t like try to take a picture of it — I just looked at it. I was sitting on a rock, and I was like, ‘What in the hell is that?’ I was trying to figure it out, and then they went away. And then they came back…I was like, ‘Those are f—ing aliens.’ They were spaceships!”

 

 

Kesha even titled one of the tracks, ‘Spaceship’.

While Rainbow is a deeply personal album, Kesha does make sure to maintain that fun, youthful spirit in her music, “What’s left of my heart is still made of gold; you heal what you can and just keep going.”

That comment about healing also helped inspire Kesha to name the album Rainbow as she told The Elvis Duran Show, “The reason I wanted to name this record Rainbow is because I kind of associate healing with kind of going back to my childlike mind, before I got all twisted and turned and beaten and heartbroken and all those things…Everything was magical and I didn’t understand it. The world was so big and beautiful, and I trusted everyone and everything, and it was just so perfect and wonderful.”

 

 

It won’t take too long to hear Kesha perform her new music as last year she announced that she was going on tour! Check out the list of dates below.

 

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09/26 — Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
09/27 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
09/29 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
09/30 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
10/02 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
10/04 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/06 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
10/07 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia
10/09 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
10/13 — Lakewood, OH @ Lakewood Civic Auditorium
10/15 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
10/16 — Toronto, ON @ Rebel
10/18 — Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
10/19 — Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
10/23 — Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theatre
10/24 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
10/25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
10/27 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
10/28 — Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre (Daze of the Dead)
10/31 — San Francisco, CA @ Masonic Auditorium
11/01 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium

 

Take a listen to Rainbow below and let us know what some of your favourite tracks from the album are.

 

Filed under: dr luke, kesha