Kesha’s Eat the Acid: Destroying Pop to Rebuild Yourself

Kesha has released her recent record Gag Order, which is a drastic departure from her previous music. What I liken it to is when Radiohead jumped from The Bends to Ok Computer between 1995 – 1997. During that time Radiohead went from an alt rock college record to a grandiose, electro based, multi-tracked, epic art house opera that changed pop forever. So much so that Rolling Stone’s cover a year after the release proclaimed that “In order to save themselves Radiohead had to destroy rock and roll.” Kesha is similar with Gag Order in how the record deconstructs her earlier pop work, while still being catchy.

Kesha has talked about how Gag Order is her most personal and darkest record. In Eat the Acid she is like a phoenix and trying to destroy herself in order to become reborn. Part bad trip, part warning, part spiritual awakening and part self – destruction, Eat the Acid is almost four songs in one. Since we are comparing Kesha’s record to OK Computer, this track is her Paranoid Android where it can move from musical genre to genre with ease, while also creating a claustrophobic sense of dread. Kesha will go from warning people to not eat the acid to talking about her jagged changes and self loathing. She sings about holding onto hatred and destroying herself in order to glimpse God and the divine. Unlike the dystopic all you can eat buffet which is Paranoid Android, there is a glimmer of hope in this track. Kesha sings about hate not being part of her life and realising this as she glimpsed the divine. This little glittery speck is enough to spark hope that through this self induced pain she is able to find new life.

Musically is where this track most resembles Paranoid Android in my opinion. Gone are the neon club highs of Raising Hell or My Own Dance on the previous record and they are replaced with an organ that resembles something she would have played at her wake. There is no bass whatsoever until 2:55 and the beginning is dominated by an organ spreading dread against an expansive, yet cold, electro landscape with minimal string hits. Now, when the bass does hit the track ramps up urgency and builds to an abrupt and emotionally effective close. Musically, this is the furthest thing form pop imaginable. In this track pop is dissected like a frog into its individual parts for you to examine. Having said all of that, the vocal makes this track work.

The effect put on her vocal, along with vocal layering, has it cut through everything like a knife. As a listener, you get this very personal vibe like she is confessing all her sins to you alone. Moreover, there are vocal shifts where it is layered upon itself multiple times, while other times it is tinny and sounds like it was recorded on a 1993 Sony Walkman. Kesha’s vocal is so effective that at 2:46 they cut the music out altogether as Kesha exclaims that she was the one that she has been fighting the whole time. The silence reinforces the emotional impact of this revelation and is brilliantly used.

Kesha produced this record largely with Rick Ruben and the shift from club / house to a cross between Nine Inch Nails dark industrial and Grimes level vocal production is a master stroke. Eat the Acid is vulnerable and unapologetically brutal, but contains enough hope and pop hooks to keep you coming back for more. I give much love and respect to Kesha for going so far outside the box with Rubin. The end product is art.

Listen to Eat the Acid