(RCA/Kemosabe)Kesha’s fourth album sees her return to her party-girl 2010s persona, full of glitter-pop but with a new self-awareness
![Kesha: High Road review – bringing the girl back to the party](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/699058698e076b09619c6201a6b2cda241404665/0_159_5035_3022/master/5035.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=0165ede00178ae7bfe4fdf95170d4098)
Kesha’s new album begins with a U-turn. After a few bars of tinkling piano balladry, the pop star drops a low-riding bassline and launches into the bratty style of rap-lite that made her famous in 2009 (recall her debut single Tik Tok, when she announced that she brushes her teeth with Jack Daniels). The quick genre-flip in Tonight is a sign of things to come from the singer’s fourth album: she has mostly ditched the gutsy drama of her last record and, instead, re-embraced her party girl persona. Case in point: the bouncy title track High Road, with its not-so-subtle double entendre: “I’m taking the high road / I’m high as fuck.” This is more like the Ke$ha who arrived in the early 2010s: dirty mouthed, silly, and always up for a big night out.