Kesha is back with her first solo single in four years, and it’s a gripping warts-and-all ballad which doesn’t just wear its heart on its sleeve — it shoves it right in your face.
Dubbed ‘Praying’, the pop star’s comeback single is so heavily wrought with emotion — and so very plainly directed at her former producer Dr. Luke whom she unsuccessfully sued for sexual assault in a drawn-out public saga — that it’s damn near uncomfortable to watch and listen to.
But you should, because the music video (below) is not only visually stunning, like some kind of technicolour fairytale-meets-Mad Max-style scorched earth post-apocalyptic world, but the song itself shows off Kesha’s pipes in a way we’ve rarely (if ever) heard them before, complete with a glass-shatteringly high Vanessa Amorosi circa ‘Absolutely Everybody’ style note at the end.
“We both know all the truth I could tell,” the ‘Tik Tok’ singer warns in the lyrics of the song, which begins with her lying in a coffin reciting a gut-wrenchingly honest monologue referencing her struggles with depression and the pain of her ordeal.
“If I am alive. Why? Why?” she asks. “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’ve got to give up. I can’t do this anymore. Please just let me die. Being alive hurts too much.”
Heavy shit.
Speaking at a secret event in London this week, Kesha said of her comeback single (via News Corp): “Obviously my first song is a ballad which is always risky for a pop singer. But hopefully the truth in the message will shine through.”
‘Praying’ will feature on her third studio album Rainbow, which is due to drop on 11th August, and also reportedly features a duet with the great Dolly Parton and two songs with Eagles Of Death Metal.
