Episode 18: The Kesha Spesha

Kesha's solo comeback Praying is a song that strikes at the heart of how pop is made and where the power lies. It also raises the question of whether authenticity is a prerequisite when listening to highly emotive songs. Source material for this discussion includes Amanda Petrusich's excellent piece for the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-pain-of-denying-kesha-her-audience And John Seabrook's highly recommended book The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. Elsewhere in this week's podcast, there's a J-Hus challenge, some bickering over Rita Ora lyrics and an argument over Katy Perry, Calvin Harris and whether songs written as a patchwork quilt of little ideas still work. Popjustice's review of Liam Payne's new single is here: https://www.popjustice.com/songs/zedd-and-liam-payne-get-low/ And we've made a Songs of the Summer playlist, to be updated with new suggestions as they come along: https://open.spotify.com/user/snapes/playlist/3Dwx8dc86Zksmf8aUNKJxG Laura's most-listened-to song this week is "Equestrian" by Omni and Fraser's is “ALIENS” by Coldplay. As ever, all of this week's notable tracks are in our rolling Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/snapes/playlist/2J6T6Ks6rQNNe9vUeu24ON You can email us on [email protected], or tweet us: https://twitter.com/laurasnapes https://twitter.com/csi_popmusic