Title:Warrior
Artiste: Kesha
Genre: Pop
Evil Bastard: The Batlord (again)
As if anyone else would recommend this. Batty's starry-eyed love affair with this woman is only matched by his adoration of Manowar, so is it misplaced? Probably. I really don't like much of the current pop music (though there can be some exceptions) and I certainly don't generally like hip-hop, so this may indeed be something of an ordeal for me. Let's see how it goes. The title track kicks it off, with my favourite, autotune, well in evidence, big thick bassy synth carrying the tune, the vocal pretty much rapped although I guess you wouldn't call this hip-hop really. Some nice piano, it's got a hook, but then so do coathangers and I don't listen to them. It's not the worst pop song I've ever listened to. Lot of samples going off all over the place. She's got a decent voice, give her that much. Sounds like Cornershop's “Brimful of asha” for a moment as we move into “Die young” (not a cover of the Black Sabbath classic) and it's another kind of nursery rhyme rhythm carrying the song, which has a general ****-it-let's-live-for-today message. “C'mon” has a nice
acapella opening and pads that remind me of Kelly Marie's “Feels like I'm in love”. Melody is okay to be fair.
Impressed to see she writes, or co-writes her own material, always a plus with me. This one is pretty catchy. Nice midsection where the percussion drops away. Almost rock for “Thinking of you”, seems to be a real ****-you revenge song. Very original.
Again it's a catchy tune, can't deny that. Like the warbly synth or keytar or whatever it is, but “Crazy kids” is pretty annoying I have to say. The rap in this one is particularly annoying. If there's a song I like least on the album so far, this is it. Empty and vacuous, pointless and stupid. Other than that, it's great.
The organ intro to “Wherever you are” is nice, the song itself is okay. Iggy Pop shows up for “Dirty love” to remind the world he's not dead, but to me he's dead since he sold out to sell insurance, and the song has a kind of Joan Jett does
Grease vibe about it. Is there anything to be read into the fact that Iggy doesn't really want to sing the word “dirty”? Probably not.
Kesha does Country next with the first ballad, and “Wonderland” is not bad but sounds a little out of place with its thick organ line and acoustic guitar; more like something you'd get on a Carrie Underwood or Kelly Clarkson album. Nice to see her toning it down though. No rap in this one, so it's good to hear her sing “normally”, as it were. Is that pedal steel? “Only wanna dance with you” has a sort of rockabilly feel to it, good hook in the chorus though it rides very close to Hoobastank's “The Reason”... You can hear the echoes of Nik Kershaw's “Wouldn't it be good” in “Supernatural”, but I have to say the song does nothing for me, though I did like Kershaw's tune. Still, fair play to her for giving him a partial writing credit. I hear a lot of influences here, like on “All that matters (The beautiful life)” it's very close to Kylie's “On a night like this”, another dance anthem I guess that champions living for today. And the closer then is “Love into the light”, which opens like Collins' “In the air tonight” with soft gentle percussion and a quiet keyboard line behind. As a sort of power ballad it's pretty damn good, and as a closer it's really effective too.
Of course, it
would be the closer, and that would be that, but Batty has insisted I listen to the full deluxe edition, so instead of ending here we have another four tracks to go. “Last goodbye” is okay, has a nice kind of marching beat, good percussion, whistling is good too. Can't say the same for “Gold Trans-Am” though. This is a euphemism, right? Dear god. Queen's “We will rock you” with a rap vocal? Lord save me! Nice guitar solo, again straight out of the Queen song though. “Out alive” is a little too trancey for me, and we end on “Past lives”, where she tones it back again for a really quite nice acoustic ballad.
Batty probably hoped one of two things would happen with this album. Either I would hate it so much it would be total torture, or despite myself I'd end up liking it and joining his Kesha fan club army. Neither happened man. It's okay, but I don't see in general what the big fuss you make of her is all about. I'd have to say though, the Spice Girls have a lot to answer for!
Torture Level: 10%