Glitter rock princess packs girl power, sass in ‘Warrior’
The AutoTune isn’t completely gone and neither is the sass, but the pop princess best known for her addiction to glitter and lyrics about Jack Daniels and Mick Jagger has a brand-new rock flavor this time around.
The diva in question is Ke$ha, of course, and on her newest album, “Warrior,” released today, the singer shows off a side listeners have never seen before.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the singer said she wrote the album after a “spirit journey.” She described the subjects on “Warrior” being a mixture of the old Ke$ha with room for the newer version of herself, too.
“It’s about the magic of life,” she said. “Part of that is getting super drunk, but I wrote about other stuff this time as well.”
On the title track, Ke$ha displays a girl power attitude, singing, “We were born to break the doors down / fighting ‘til the end.”
Next comes “Die Young,” the album’s first radio single. Co-written by fun. lead singer Nate Ruess, the lyrics plead for listeners to live every moment like it’s the last, a catchier take on the “YOLO” philosophy.
“C’Mon” is filled with lyrical gems like “sipping on a warm Budweiser” and “come give me some of that ‘yum’ like a lollipop.” The singer gets a little soft and sentimental in the song’s ballad-like bridge, “I don’t wanna think about what’s gonna be after this,” but the sexually charged rhymes and party girl quips are definitely still present.
“Thinking of You” starts off as a bratty anthem with a slick electric guitar line and pounding cymbals, but Ke$ha waxes poetic with a chorus laced with wistful romance: “I heard our song on the radio / And I see your face everywhere I go / I thought I’d call just to let you know / I’ve been thinking of you / thinking of you-oo-oooh.”
“Crazy Kids” has a similarly toned-down chorus and an acoustic guitar line that comes in and out, but words like “hoochie” slip into Ke$ha’s snarky rap verses, proof she hasn’t lost the bold, brash, in-your-face attitude that got her noticed in the first place.
Iggy Pop makes an awesome guest appearance in “Dirty Love” with a howling Ke$ha behind the mic, delivering raw vocals that don’t sound anything like the singer’s signature speak-sing rhymes. “Santorum did it in a v-neck sweater ... but wild child can do it better” and “champagne tastes like piss to me” are just a few of the hilariously irreverent lyrics Ke$ha spits on this track.
“Wonderland” is a downer that doesn’t fit in with the rest of “Warrior” at all. While it’s nice to hear Ke$ha sing without all the computerized whirring and special effects, the piano-driven ballad sounds like a lame Avril Lavigne song and is pretty forgettable.
When she’s looking for her next single, Ke$ha should consider “Only Wanna Dance With You.” The ’60s-inspired instrumental hook is incredibly catchy and its simple chorus and sweet verses make it one of the singer’s least raunchy tracks
“Supernatural” and “Beautiful Life” are both extremely repetitive and aren’t as clever or funny as past hits like “Blah Blah Blah.”
While you have to dish out a few extra dollars for the deluxe edition of the album, it includes the deliciously inappropriate, hard rocking “Gold Trans Am” and three other exclusives.
The standard album closes with “Love Into the Light,” with the lines, “I know that I got a sordid past / And yeah, some bad tattoos.”
She’s not apologizing for anything and staying true to herself, the one thing that the singer will never stop doing.