Kesha - Rainbow

I honestly am having a horrible time expressing properly how this album has affected me. The fact that she's released 5 singles before the album actually dropped was ridiculous in the most amazing. I am going to write a review of the album later today so this is just going to talk about this released of the video for the song, "Rainbow" and not the album.

This song is another example of just how you can take all the shit that you've been experiencing and you make it something good and valid and full of light. And can we talk just a second about how this track is produced by Ben Folds.... I mean, come on; how freaking cool. This song is everything. It's got so much power and so much depth and you can hear just how beautiful Kesha is in every note and every vocal expression. This song is going to mean so much to so many people, myself included. There is so much healing wrapped up in this four minute song. It's so gorgeous. From the strings to the harmonica to the huge, swelling back up vocalists. There is so much musicality and theatricality to this song and it's all done with such deft precision that it's perfect.

Acceptance and processing and learning to move forward with your life are all concepts and ideas that we struggle with and to hear them so beautifully expressed in this song makes me so proud to see her standing so tall and strong in light of everything that's been happening to her the past 4 years. This is a fully realized artist that's finally able to sing with her own voice and it's beautiful. Her first two albums established that groundwork that was her fan base but this album will cement it and hold it together forever.

Kesha - Hymn

Catharsis, be thy name. Plain and simple, that's what Kesha continues to give us with each track she releases from her new album, "Rainbow". "Hymn" is the 4th song to be revealed and again, it's a song about hope and belonging and finding your place when you didn't think you had one. After everything Kesha has been through, would anyone have faulted her for just throwing her hands up and quitting? Probably not but she didn't quit. She worked through her pain and she's created an album full of music that is going to do her fan base a world of good. It's going to teach them how to process emotion and it's going to teach them that no matter what happens in your life, you are strong. You are powerful and you can get through it. Surround yourself with people that matter and you will do amazing things.

Kesha - Learn To Let Go

Being a part of Kesha's catharsis is going to heal a lot of people. As she continues to release single after single from "Rainbow", we are drawn deeper and deeper into her healing and her process of becoming whole again. She's not been able to release new music in over four years so it stands to reason that the singles from "Rainbow" would be rapid fire. "Learn to Let Go" is the latest single and it's an amazing ode to the advice we are so easily and willing to give other people but damn near impossible to do ourselves. We get to see Kesha reminiscing over her childhood and see pieces of herself that she's probably not shared with the world before. She's open. She's honest and she's letting us into her life more now than ever. It's a really great song that just makes you feel good by the time it's done and I think a lot of that is due to our own healing and growth as we are all learning more about ourselves every day.

Kesha - Woman

1. Don't buy me a drink.
2. I make my money.
3. Don't touch my weave.
4. Don't call me honey.

Rules for dating in 2017. Actually, rules for being a respectable human being. Kesha is absolutely KILLING it with her new music. The first two tracks off "Rainbow" have shown a huge range that people may not have seen before from her. And for the first time, creatively as it were, people are getting to hear her true voice. Nothing has given me more joy than to see the compilation video of people losing their shit over her F6 high note in "Praying".  Until now, she's been controlled and stifled by her record label, her producer and other people in management that feel they know better than she does who she should be but with these new tracks, you are hearing a more fully realized version of who she is. It's like when Pink decided to throw off the ideals of her record label and lost the hip hop/party girl vibe they wanted her to sell and we got the truer version of Alicia except with Kesha, her journey has been much more arduous.

So, "Woman".... talk about an anthem. A female empowerment anthem that lets you know that she is her own person. She is her own being and she needs nothing from no one to do what she needs to do in this world. The song is raw and it's not perfect and she actually breaks out into laughter during it. The addition of the horn section from The Dap-Kings is incredible. Sharon Jones was one of the most powerful women in music and she fought and struggled to be who she new she needed to be and you can hear her legacy in the funk that her band laid down for Kesha. I think she would have been proud to hear this collaboration. You still get the party vibe from this song but it's a more elevated form of party. It's a woke version of partying. And it's important for young women and men alike to hear this.

It's a fantastic song and you'll easily find yourself going back to it over and over again. "Rainbow" is shaping up to be a helluva release and I can't wait to hear her collaborations with Eagles of Death Metal and Dolly Parton. It's going to be an incredible journey and it's only just beginning.

Kesha - Praying

Survivor. Resilient. Unwaivering. Those are just a very few of the descriptors that come to mind when I think about Kesha Rose Sebert. In the music industry today, there are very few artists that have gone through what she has. There are even fewer that have been as vocal about their struggles as she has. Much like everyone else, I found Kesha around 2010 but it wasn't until I saw a fan reaction on "My Crazy Beautiful Life" that I fully appreciated the magnitude of what being a fan meant. A young boy found solace in her music and when he had the opportunity to meet her, he was moved to tears and it not only had a profound affect on him but any of us watching this moment on television.

Kesha has been put through the ringer.  She has fought and won a battle against anorexia. She is fighting to regain control of her music career. She is standing tall in the face of adversity and she is a clear role model for anyone and everyone that has been put through it. This is her first official single in four years. Four torturous years where she hasn't been able to release any new music due to the legal battles she's faced with Dr. Luke and Sony. And in this single, she takes the high road. She lays it out there for people to see. To understand exactly what it is that she's been experiencing at the hands of her abuser. The video starts out with a monologue and I have to say, I am beyond moved at the honesty and sheer amount of raw emotion she has been able to put into words with what she's experienced.

"Am I dead? Or is this one of those dreams? Those horrible dreams that seem like they last forever? If I am alive, why? If there is a God or whatever, something, somewhere, why have I been abandoned by everyone and everything I've ever known? I've ever loved? Stranded. What is the lesson? What is the point? God, give me a sign, or I have to give up. I can't do this anymore. Please just let me die. Being alive hurts too much."

As a very personal side note, these words touched me. Greatly. As a matter of fact, they're pretty much how I've felt almost every day for the past six months. And even reading them, I am moved to tears because they are a manifestation of my thoughts and my fears and exactly what's been going on in my life. And now, someone that I admire. Someone that I cherish has said them out loud. Given a voice to my struggle and my pain and it gives me hope. It gives me strength to know that I am not alone. That I am not doing this by myself and if Kesha has the power to overcome this a day at a time, then so do I.

She is everything. Her music means the world to me. Her voice gives a voice to those people that are voiceless. She is a misfit on the island of misfit toys. She is an outcast. And I am proud to be right there beside her. I am so proud of her for standing tall and not backing down and doing what makes her whole. I am honored to be the recipient of such a gift that she's given the world and I cherish it. She is Kesha Rose and I adore her.