American Singer/Songwriter Kesha delivers the third song and video from her long-delayed third album, “Rainbow,” on Thursday morning, and like the other two songs released so far, “Praying” and the F-bomb-filled party anthem “Woman,” it comes with a long essay and shares a theme of moving on from hardship.
“As much as our past creates who we are, we can’t let it define us or hold us back,” Kesha writes in this song’s accompanying essay, published again in The Huffington Post. And especially if you’ve been through something hard, and we all have, you can’t hold on to resentment because it’s like a poison. You have to learn to let go of those bad feelings and move forward.
“Your past only has as much effect on your future as you want it to.”
While those words could address any situation, anyone who’s paid attention to her long legal battle with former collaborator Dr. Luke — which saw her accusing him of sexual assault and unfair contract terms — will see a parallel there. While Kesha did not work with Luke on this album, she remains under contract to his record label, Kemosabe, which is releasing “Rainbow” via RCA.
The song’s video collects footage from several home movies of Kesha as a child, and in the Isaac Ravishankara -directed video she wanders through a field she’d run through as a child, accompanied by dancers, discovering items from her childhood featured in the home movies. Unlike the ballad “Hymn” or the rocked-up “Woman,” this song is a buoyant pop anthem that lets Kesha show off her range.
“I’ve been through hell and back,” she sings in one verse. “Honestly, it’s made me who I am.”
Peep the visuals below
Download Kesha – Learn To Let Go (MP3)