Ke$ha - Animal
Record Label: RCA
Release Date: January 5, 2010
In March 2009, Manchester Orchestra released AP.net's Album of the Year Mean Everything to Nothing, which combined intelligent, introspective lyrics with raw, unpolished, dynamic rock. Critics hailed them for their imagination, emotional charge, and willingness to push the boundaries of the radio rock genre.
Ke$ha's debut album Animal shares none of these qualities, and it's the breakout pop debut of the year.
Taking cues from Lady Gaga's success in 2009, Ke$ha stomped onto the pop music scene with "Tik Tok," a pre-game anthem to getting drunk with your girlfriends and going out to party. Lyrics like "brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack" and "don't have a plan in the world, but got plenty of beer" are delivered so matter-of-factly and...happily (more on that later) that the listener is forced to consider that Ke$ha's songs are autobiographical. Make no mistake, there isn't a single intelligent or introspective phrase on her entire album, but the sheer vapidity and (dare I say it) "swagger" of Ke$ha's delivery makes her assertions of "kick [men] to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger" believable.
Nearly all of the songs on "Animal" are infectiously catchy. From the kick stomp Katy Perry stylings of "Your Love Is My Drug" to the piano rain echoes of the title track, our drunken star delivers polished dance music with only a few missteps (3OH!3's further degradation of the English language in "Blah Blah Blah" reaffirms my hatred of them and completely ruins a great track). The song titles show the limited range of topics: "Take It Off," Hungover," "Party at a Rich Dude's House," etc. Despite the odd out-of-place ballad (Ke$ha's at her best in full party mode), there's not much variety either, with synthesizer and computer beats and nursery rhyme melodies. But it works. Over half of this album has single potential, and as Rihanna, Madonna, or Michael Jackson can tell you, that's all that matters in the world of pop music.
Intelligent, introspective lyrics? Nope.
Raw? Not in the unpolished sense. Maybe the morning after these songs feel a bit raw.
Dynamic rock? Went out the window as soon as 3OH!3 was invited to the party.
Imagination, emotional charge, and willingness to push the boundaries of radio? Nope. Ke$ha plays it safe by releasing dance music that's easy to latch onto, and that's all anyone's asking.
Just turn around boy and let me hit that
Don't be a little bitch with your chit chat
Just show me where your dick's at
Boy come on get your rocks off
Come put a little love in my glove box
I wanna dance with no pants on
Meet me in the back with the jack and the jukebox
So cut to the chase kid
'Cause I know you don't care what my middle name is
I wanna be naked
But your wasted
Your always talking that shit
But never laying the bitch
Yeah
I don't care who you are
In this bar
It only matters who I is
Stop ta-ta-talking that Blah blah blah
Think you'll be getting this
Nah nah nah
Not in the back of my
Car-ar-ar
If you keep talking that
Blah blah blah blah blah
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