ALBUM REVIEWS

KESHA Rainbow (RCA Records)

There’s a beautiful way that Kesha delivers the screeching high note near the end of Praying, the first single from her first album in five years, Rainbow.

It’s not technically perfect, but musically, it’s flawless. This is freedom. The touching piano song — with lyrics like “no more monsters, I can breathe again” — showcases a newer, stronger Kesha. Though she has been singing for years, she is now truly saying something.

Rainbow is the 30-year-old’s first time creating music commercially without her former collaborator, Dr. Luke. Since 2010, they have made countless Top 10 hits. Before that, Kesha sang background on tracks Dr. Luke produced for other artists.

The two have been at war, though, since Kesha claimed the producer drugged, sexually abused and psychologically tormented her. Dr. Luke is denying the allegations.

Some of the new songs, like Praying and opener Bastards, could be directed at Dr. Luke, but the album is more about Kesha, and her growth.

Hymn, co-written with her mother Pebe Sebert, is irresistible and anthemic; Learn to Let Go is upbeat and punchy; and Woman, featuring The DapKings Horns, is empowering and bouncy. Overall, Kesha glows, and Rainbow is radiant.

PAUL KELLY Life is Fine (Cooking Vinyl)

Paul Kelly, Australia’s national treasure, has gone eclectic in recent releases, unless you consider setting Shakespearean sonnets to music mainstream.

Life is Fine returns to familiar territory: sturdy, pop-rock songs from a writer who’s a master of economy and expressiveness.

Lovely lines abound: “You’re autumn trees undressing in the month of May,” he sings, a reminder of where this came from. Kelly updates a Roy Orbison song and sets a Langston Hughes poem to music in the title cut.

Vika and Linda Bull shine as singers, and not just backups — Kelly generously gives each a lead in one song (although maybe not too generous, since Vika’s assignment, My Man’s Got a Cold, is the album’s one true clunker).

BEN SOLLEE Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native (Soundly Music)

Take a classically trained cellist with an adventurous spirit and strong feelings for his native Kentucky and what do you get? A brilliant new album that will warm the hearts of those who know and love the Bluegrass State — and just might encourage others to come calling.

On Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native, the cellist Ben Sollee blends ancient mountain melodies with stirring lyrics rooted in the state he calls home.

Sollee brings other influences to bear — a syncopated African rhythm on the opener, Carrie Bell, for example — but the core is all Kentucky.