Rainbow
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CRITIC REVIEWS
91
Rainbow, her rich, masterful third LP, is far more than a kiss-off to old demons — it’s an artistic feat, as Kesha unites stylistic forays with her sharp, weathered lyricism.
90
Instead of dwelling on what isn’t said on the record, she chooses to use her experiences to find the strength to move on. And so we get the most authentic Kesha album yet, and it’s a triumph.
83
It’s a bold, focused, universal statement about freedom—from self-hatred, from paralyzing internal conflicts, from gender expectations, from negative influences, and (especially) from other people’s shit.
80
Californian pop hero Kesha returns with a defiant country and garage rock-tinged triumph.
80
Kesha channels that drama into the best music of her career – finding common ground between the honky-tonks she loves and the dance clubs she ruled with hits like "Tik Tok" and "Die Young," between glossy beats, epic ballads and grimy guitar riffs.
80
Sometimes she'll slide into cliché, usually by recycling therapy-speak, but how she pairs these credos with veiled confessions is as striking and moving as her party songs are weird and funny. By slyly alternating between these two extremes throughout Rainbow, Kesha winds up with a comeback that's fully realized emotionally and musically.
80
The suggestion Rainbow successfully posits is that the woman who lurked somewhere behind the Ke$ha image might be every bit as fierce and screw-you as her persona, and a substantially more eclectic and idiosyncratic musical force to boot.
80
The result is a revelation. Where previous albums had been bland landfill electro-pop rendered even more indistinguishable through her heavily autotuned vocals, Rainbow offers a range of approaches, from pop and R&B to country and funk, applied to material that brings greater depth to her characteristic sassy attitude.
80
The extraordinary vision that Kesha has put forth ensures that in due course, Rainbow will be remembered on its own merits: not only as the unquestionable best album she’s ever put out, but also one of 2017’s finest pop releases.
80
Rainbow ... is musically backdated but emotionally upgraded, replacing dumb thrills with vocal skills and genuine personality.
80
While the drastic shift in musical styling that drives Rainbow's 14 tracks risks sounding jumbled, Kesha tastefully executes each genre she dabbles in.
80
Rainbow is simply the record she needed to make. And at a time where most pop music is either designed by committee or drowning in beigeness, it’s also the kind of individual and achingly honest record we needed to hear.
80
“Defiant” may be a term too often misused in an age of empowerment feminism, but it’s absolutely fitting for this album.
80
It’s also an artistic achievement: she has successfully shed the hot mess synth-pop party-girl shtick to reveal her true colours: lover of rock 'n’ roll, soul and country.
75
The biggest lesson of Rainbow should be that our days of underestimating the ambitions and abilities of Kesha Rose Sebert are over.
75
Rainbow may not contain the electrobops you expect from Kesha Sebert, but at its heart, it does possess what drew everyone to her in the first place: confidence, sonic booms, and an assurance that everything will be alright when the storm clears.
75
The album captures a mixture of genres that come together to create a really vulnerable and organic sound. Kesha uses Rainbow to let her listeners into her struggles, thoughts and true personality, something missing from her previous releases.
72
Make no mistake, Rainbow is steadfastly, stubbornly about embracing a new identity.
70
Rainbow probably wouldn't pass the rhetorical test of critical objectivity: If this weren't a Kesha album, it's unlikely anyone would notice it. But while it might not be the discovery of a new talent, it's certainly the deepening of an existing one.
70
Rainbow is joyful and affirmational and sad and sexy and strange, sometimes all at once, and has just enough charm to overcome its strange pacing, stylistic incoherence, and a couple of weak tracks (the Ben Folds-produced title track being the worst offender). It’s easily the singer’s strongest work, and will surely run circles around most of the year’s mainstream pop offerings.
70
On Rainbow, Kesha artfully reinvents herself without losing the fun, wild energy that made her such an appealing pop figure in the first place.
68
Her early records, of course, were meant to be fun; here, one can unequivocally say Kesha has joined in.
60
The record isn't perfect ... though it's enjoyable in places.
60
'Rainbow' is a muddled hotch-potch that offers little beyond the fact it heralds her return. It's great to have Kesha back - it really is - but let's hope the quality improves in future.
60
Rainbow is both stranger and more normal than you expect; uneven – does Kesha really rhyme “highway” with “Hyundai”? – but likable.
50
Catchy melodies abound, but there is too much insistence on melody, and not enough on thoughtful instrumentation or profundity, for this album to rise as a pop classic.
I still think about this record two years later and to be honest, I still love most of it. One of the most solid pop albums of 2017 if not the decade, and Kesha's best album, undoubtedly.
Kesha's long-awaited return album Rainbow is a genre-hopping, kaleidoscopic pop record that dwells on a personal level of reflection, rather than offering an explicit enlisting of all the highly controversial issues faced by the expansive popstar during the last three or four years of her life.
Rainbow (an incredibly suitable title at that) takes the listeners in a flamboyant, rollercoaster-like experience that addresses the singer's intense thoughts and personal struggle to overcome a ... read more
Rainbow (an incredibly suitable title at that) takes the listeners in a flamboyant, rollercoaster-like experience that addresses the singer's intense thoughts and personal struggle to overcome a ... read more
Durante os nove anos que o blog está ativo aconteceram vários comebacks triunfais de artistas de todos os tipos. Se fossem para enumerar todos daria um post próprio só para relembrar cada um desses retornos triunfais e o contexto que os cercam. Todavia, esse texto irá falar sobre o mais arrebatador comeback que esse blog já presenciou, pois não é apenas um retorno ao sucesso ou as graças dos criticas. Com Rainbow, Kesha faz um ... read more
Props to Kesha for losing the dollar sign that shit should stay in 2007. I like this album a lot more than anything else she's done in the past, most of which I would rather suck an aids dick than listen to again. This has some pretty instrumentals and a couple actually good tracks. But is held back by sometimes being not very good and directionless as an album.
My issues with this album are mostly because of Kesha's past persona showing up at seemingly random and unwanted times in the lyrics. ... read more
My issues with this album are mostly because of Kesha's past persona showing up at seemingly random and unwanted times in the lyrics. ... read more
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Year End Lists
| #3 | / | Cosmopolitan |
| #4 | / | People |
| #4 | / | Rolling Stone |
| #7 | / | Time |
| #8 | / | NPR Music |
| #9 | / | Yahoo Music |
| #14 | / | Entertainment Weekly |
| #16 | / | Billboard |
| #21 | / | Complex |
| #31 | / | Earbuddy |
More Lists
Track List
- Bastards
- Let 'Em Talk (feat. Eagles of Death Metal)
- Woman (feat. The Dap-Kings Horns)
- Hymn
- Praying
- Learn To Let Go
- Finding You
- Rainbow
- Hunt You Down
- Boogie Feet (feat. Eagles of Death Metal)
- Boots
- Old Flames (Can't Hold a Candle To You) [feat. Dolly Parton]
- Godzilla
- Spaceship
Added on: July 6, 2017