It’s been what feels like forever and a day (as Kelly Rowland might say) since we last heard from our almighty Ke$ha, Empress of Trash-Pop. But rest assured–she’s coming back, animals.
Earlier this year, the glitter-drenched rock ‘n’ roll pop princess spent time in L.A. recording with unstoppable pop hit-makers that helped shape her debut record Animal, Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco. This time however, she was busy crafting her very own genre, which she lovingly referred to on Twitter as “cock pop.”
Along with the usual suspects however, K$ also took to her Nashville home studio to record with Oklahoma-bred alt-rockers and newfound pals, The Flaming Lips.
As my friends over at Pop On And On initially reported, frontman Wayne Coyne tweeted out a bunch of photos and teaser clips back in January while recording a track for their upcoming Record Store Day compilation, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends. The end result was “2012” with Biz Markie, a track centering around “the end of the world.” (Hey, wait–that sounds oddly familiar. I wonder if she’s ever written a song like that before?)
In an interview with Pitchfork earlier this month, Coyne spoke in depth about recording with Ke$ha:
I like her so much because she’s just willing to be a freak. I’m around a lot of rock star people, and there’s just so much fucking pandering and drama. She’s not like that. It’s such a great relief to be around people that are so energetic, creative, funny, and into life.
(You’ll want to read that whole interview by the way, including a fun little anecdote about almost dropping acid with her before recording the track. Silly K$!)
Now, Ke$ha and Coyne have reunited in the studio to record more tracks–and this time, it’s for her long awaited sophomore follow-up. Once again, Coyne’s been tweeting out teasers from the sessions, like a clip of Ke$ha seductively moaning the phrase “You really got it goin’ good now.”
And most recently (as in, just a few hours ago), Coyne tweeted that he was mixing a new K$ track called “You Control My Heart,” including a sneak peek video which you can check out below.
And this is exactly what we’ve been waiting to hear: New Ke$ha. New sound. As she told MTV earlier, it sounds like she’s allowing herself to be much more vulnerable. With The Flaming Lips on board, it sounds as though our drunk-pop darling is navigating into some seriously dreamy, ambient indie-rock on whatever she’s cooking up–and it sounds fucking amazing.
As we know from her leaked demos and tracks penned for other artists, Kween Ke$ha’s quite kapable of penning pop with substance and krooning far better than she’s led the public to believe based on her most popular club-pop smashes. So, if she turns around and delivers a collection of bold left-of-center tunes that still pack a power-pop punch? I wouldn’t be surprised in the least.
This album cannot come soon enough.