Boombox Blitz: Kesha goes acoustic for ‘Resentment’ & ‘Raising Hell’

Welcome to Boombox Blitz, an artist spotlight series showcasing overlooked singers, songwriters and musicians who are quietly taking over the world.

“I don’t want to go to heaven without raising hell,” Kesha juggles contrasting elements – wanting to be good and wreaking a little havoc. Inside an acoustic framework, “Raising Hell,” the lead-in to her fourth studio album, High Road, out this Friday, is validation for all the hell the pop star’s been through in her career. Two and a half years ago, the pop debutante released her magnum opus, 2017’s emotionally-tangled and thorny Rainbow, and as ambitious as it was, it was bound by her past. Now, she emerges from a vibrant, silky, neon-coated cocoon with an appetite to wiggle in the club and go spaceship gazing with her BFF.

In two just-released acoustic live performances, including a solo version of “Resentment,” originally a collaboration with Americana staple Sturgill Simpson, Beach Boys’ player/songwriter Brian Wilson, and pop elite Wrabel, she flexes her vocal cords. If you’re a true Animal, you’ve known all along the kind of prowess the grungy queen possesses. She swoons; she snarls; she snaps. And along the way, she can move you to tears. In case you happen to be new, there’s no greater evidence that the world has, largely and tragically, taken Kesha for granted. “I don’t know how to leave or how to stay,” she pops her heartstrings. Both performances are broiled in conviction – and it is finally her time.

High Road is poised to make a splash – as of his writing, it’s her second-best reviewed album on Metacritic -so let’s bask in her God given talent for a few moments.

Watch both performances below:

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