MANILA, Philippines — Pop singer Kesha, or Ke$ha as she is popularly, has released her fifth album titled "Gag Order."
The new album comes three years after "High Road," which came out just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of the world.
Related Stories
Kesha described "Gag Order" as a "'post-pop' full-bodied collection that flows like a stream-of-consciousness journey through the psychedelic dark depths of the human psyche."
The album's name and its songs are likely a reflection of the singer's experiences during her legal battle against music producer Dr. Luke, with the album's cover art designed by Brian Roettinger and photographed by Vincent Haycock, showing Kesha with a plastic bag over her head.
Rolling Stone magazine has even called the tracks on the album as Kesha's "most daring music yet."
Lead singles "Eat The Acid" and "Fine Line" were released last month as a dual single to support the arrival of "Gag Order," as was the release of another song, "Only Love Can Save Us Now," just days before the album was dropped.
Related: 'Kill The Weeknd': Abel Tesfaye plans to retire stage name
Other anticipated songs on the album are "Living In My Head," where the singer contemplates struggles with panic attacks; finding peace in the fallout of facing fear on "Happy" and "All I Need Is You," a song dedicated to Kesha's unconditional true love — her cat Mr. Peeps.
Rounding up "Gag Order" are tracks "Something To Believe In," "The Drama," "Too Far Gone," "Peace & Quiet," "Hate Me Harder" and "Happy," plus a "Ram Dass Interlude" and "Only Love Reprise."
"Without the darkness there is no light. So I let my darkness have the light. I can’t fight the truth. Life is difficult and painful. It is for everyone," Kesha recently told Nylon about the album. "An artist doesn't exist to make others happy. I believe an artist gives voice, motion, color to the emotions we all have.The good emotions and the unmanageably miserable ones."
Kesha's previous four albums — "Animal," "Warrior," "Rainbow" and the aforementioned "High Road" — are equivalent to approximately 6.9 billion audio streams and 1.7 billion global video streams.
She is best known for her hit songs "TiK ToK," "Your Love Is My Drug," "We R Who We R," "Die Young," "Take It Off," "Blah Blah Blah," "Crazy Kids," "Blow," "C'Mon" and "Woman," as well as collaborating on "Timber" with Pitbull, "Right Round" with Flo Rida, "My First Kiss" with 3OH!3 and "Dirty Picture" with Taio Cruz.
RELATED: Celine Dion back making music, releasing five new songs