I generally do not listen to the radio and when I do it is generally not the pop stations. I do however attempt to keep up on the industry trends and what is hot in the music world, after all I have a strong affinity for pop music, my being alerted to what is “hot” mostly falls on my catching industry news, checking the charts and by old fashioned word of mouth. Somehow though I completely missed the emergence of the newest pop sensation, Southern Cal’s Ke$ha and her smash hit single, “Tik Tok”. After catching a whiff of the brash single I was somewhat intrigued by her debut album, which released this past Tuesday.
“Animal” seemingly written by a stereotypical 15-16 year old high school girl (no offense meant to 15-16 year old girls) and filled with some much production that it is hard to tell at times if Ke$ha is actually a person or a robot that on the surface it should not work. Yet it does for the most part. The first four tracks are infectious and really get things going well.
“Your Love is My Drug”, “Tik Tok”, “Take It Off” and “Kiss and Tell” are all incredibly fun dance songs. Throbbing techno-dance beats drive the party but it is the lyrics that power it. The lyrics which by all accounts should be written a ticket for being inane actually fit somehow. The songs come across as fun, funny and incredibly forward.
For years pop princesses have made sexual innuendo an art form while male music stars have been able to outwardly show it off and often times be celebrated for it. Ke$ha says screw that and is not afraid to flaunt her love of sex and booze and to be honest it is actually kind of refreshing. She is a party girl and lets that facet of her personality overtake the music. Anybody who can write songs that involve using whiskey as mouthwash or is able to reference drunk texting in a smart funny way is good in my book.
The problem with “Animal” though is the same problem a lot of artists have, in that their albums run too long and while there may be some awesome material on it you have to dig through a ton of filler to get at it. I understand that the idea is to provide more for the consumer’s money but 14 songs of dance pop is too much and it begins to grate on the nerves by the end, unfortunately making “Animal” a mediocre album that features some choice pop songs.
3 out of 5
Favorite Tracks: Your Love is My Drug, Tik Tok, Take It Off, Kiss and Tell, Blah Blah Blah, Party at a Rich Dude’s House, Backstabber and Dinosaur
(If you enjoy dance-pop and get your music off of iTunes, the album is currently only $6.99 which is worthwhile for the select tracks I have highlighted)
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