At the end of “Praying,” Kesha lets out a little sigh of relief. She has just screamed her head off, rising above a jubilant choir at the climax of her first new song in four years. But lyrically, the ballad is slightly restrained, at least considering all she’s been through. It’s like telling the person who ruined your life to “take care” when you really mean “fuck you.” Only once does she truly seethe: “When I'm finished, they won't even know your name.” Kesha’s been doling out seemingly harsher kiss-offs to men in her songs for a while, but the context here makes this one particularly blistering.
Has a song about abuse ever felt so public? In recent years, confessionals like Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens To You” have shone a necessary light on the problem, but rarely do we know both sides of a he-said, she-said in such painstaking detail when we hear these songs. Even rarer that a powerful man sees his career suffer for these actions (though the woman's always does). Though Sony finally cut ties with Dr. Luke, whom Kesha worked closely with and has been embroiled in a legal battle with for years over claims of his habitual abuse, “Praying” was released by Luke’s own imprint, Kemosabe, due to contractual obligations.
Despite these circumstances, “Praying” marks a significant new start for Kesha. The singer bravely took on her abuser, saw #FreeKesha transformed into a rallying cry, and now has decided that she will move forward victoriously, even if the court has not exactly deemed it so. It is a powerful statement of resiliency, even if the resulting song’s familiar piano melody sounds comparatively tepid.
In theory, “Praying” was a massive anthem before one note of music was even composed, and it sounds like it was constructed to build on precisely that quality. At its start, it tugs at the heart strings like Adele doing spoken-word; at the close, like Florence Welch directing an orchestra. But at the center there is Kesha’s voice, less digitally manipulated and stronger than it used to sound on the records Luke produced. He can’t take that away from her anymore.
