Kesha’s ‘Warrior’ at 10: Every Song Ranked From Worst to Best
Written by djfrosty on November 30, 2022
After bursting onto the pop scene in 2009 as the featured vocalist on Flo Rida’s “Right Round” and with her own Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Tik Tok,” Kesha (going by Ke$ha at the time) quickly established herself as one of the top party-girl singers of her generation. After the success of her debut album Animal and its follow-up EP Cannibal (both 2010), Kesha took her second studio album, Warrior, as an opportunity to show the world there was more to her than just tipsy club anthems.
Released 10 years ago (Nov. 30, 2012 in Australia; Dec. 4, 2012 in America), Warrior saw Kesha building upon the pop aesthetic she had already established—one of joy, fun and freedom—while realizing more of her potential as an artist, successfully incorporating rock, punk and country into her existing palette of pop, hip-hop and dance. On top of that, Warrior saw her becoming more lyrically raw and personal on a handful of tracks — this newfound vulnerability helped manifest the album’s central theme of embracing your inner warrior.
While Warrior didn’t achieve as much success as the Billboard 200-topping Animal, peaking at No. 6 on that chart, its lead single “Die Young” was a commercial success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequent singles “C’Mon” and “Crazy Kids” peaked at Nos. 27 and 40, respectively.
Ultimately, the album continued to demonstrate Kesha’s star power and ability to make a mark on the pop music industry — and in some ways, it gave hints of what was to come on her triumphant return in 2017 with Rainbow.
Here, we rank all the standard tracks of Warrior in celebration of it turning 10.