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May 18, 2023Gag Order comes loaded with deliciously weird and compellingly urgent hooks.
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May 22, 2023Never has Kesha's music felt this inspiringly rich. It has all the potential of once again making her a staple on the music scene, and this time even beyond pop.
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May 22, 2023Though interludes from the late guru Ram Dass feel a little hokey, overall Gag Order is polished, powerful and affirming.
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May 18, 202313 scorched-earth tracks that present an artist pulling herself back up from the brink of madness. The most striking element of Kesha's latest is the sound. ... She has found a psychedelic middle ground between the sleazy synths of her 20212 breakthrough, Warrior, and the rootsy and Southern rock of her past two. [May 2023, p.73]
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May 18, 2023In Rubin—as much a guru as he is a producer—Kesha’s found a collaborator willing to indulge her spiritualist tangents. But neither the ideas nor the audio clips feel fully integrated into a broader theme of the album. Her ambivalence is more potent.
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May 19, 2023Sadly, co-producer Rick Rubin’s minimalist philosophy stifles many of the tracks. ... When the album does decide to break free, however, the results are stunning.
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May 18, 2023Despite some slipshod sequencing and periodic bouts of pretension, the album manages to articulate a working thesis for Kesha’s artistry that exists independently from the apparatus of purely commercial exhibitionism.
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May 22, 2023Angry and disturbing lyrics of this caliber would signify liberation for any other female artist. But it’s never been more evident than it is on Gag Order that Kesha is not a free woman. This makes it all the more difficult to enjoy Gag Order for what it is when there’s a blaring undercurrent that’s hard to ignore.
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May 19, 2023Gag Order discards these pop niceties because it's designed as a purge, one that delivers catharsis for the artist without much consideration for the audience.
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May 19, 2023Sonic risks are taken, but they don’t always pay off.
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May 18, 2023An album which is both fascinating and hard to listen to at times. Gag Order may not go down as Kesha’s best album, but it’s certainly the album that she has to make at this present time.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 116 out of 128
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Mixed: 6 out of 128
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Negative: 6 out of 128
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May 19, 2023
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May 19, 2023
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May 19, 2023Her last album album under Kemosabe. Amazing work, let there be light for Kesha