Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 11/14/2012 at 9:29 AM News

The Popdust Files: acoustic, deconstructed, Die Young, kesha

If you were going to talk about contemporary pop artists that you would probably never want to see an unplugged performance by, Ke$ha would probably have to be near or at the very top of the list. Her music is so glitzy, so glittery, so tied up in the production and beat and all the accompanying trappings that to remove all of that would seem to remove the very things that make her music special. However, Ke$ha apparently disagrees with this line of thinking, as she’s releasing an entire EP of acoustic versions of her songs—Deconstructed, to be released on her website and as part of the fan edition of new albumWarrior.

We now have one song from Deconstructed, and it’s a stripped-down version of “Die Young,” the lead single from Warrior. You’d think it’d be disastrous, or at the very least inherently comical, but it’s actually a pretty sweet version of the song—in fact, without the zooming synths and “Good Feeling”-like guitar, the song is actually saved from the relative Top 40 anonymity of its original version, becoming something much more distinctive (and in its own way, uniquely Ke$ha) in the process. It won’t burn down too many dance floors like this, but it might rock a few babies to sleep. (As long as they don’t take the title too much to heart.)

Listen to the new version of the song here, and check out the track list underneath, which also includes a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You.”

Deconstructed EP tracklist:

1. Old Flames
2. Blow
3. Harold Song
4. Die Young
5. Supernatural

[Idolator]