The enormous, career trajectory-altering success of Rainbow set a very high bar for High Road to match, not just creatively, but also in terms of its campaign roll-out. RCA US co-president John Fleckenstein is, however, quick to praise the reaction to Kesha’s new material so far.

“We were not sure what to expect, frankly,” he says. “Her last album was woven into other high-profile narratives in her life that made that project difficult to compare to. But, thus far, we ...