Review Summary: Ke$ha is a bit late to the party that Lady Gaga and The Pussycat Dolls started. Listen to this sober at your own risk.
It was only a few days ago that I was reading a newspaper article about how “empowered girls” are becoming more assertive and seducing boys into having sex with them. The reporter outlined studies and observations that could be summarized as girls (predominately ages 16-24) becoming more like men, in the sense that they’re much more sexually aggressive. With her raunchy debut
Animal, there’s no doubt in my mind that Ke$ha (money sign purposeful) adds fuel to this fire. It’s not difficult to imagine teenage girls in ridiculous attention-getting outfits with bright colors (maybe a nod to Lady Gaga here or there) dancing with fruity liquor galore calling dibs on the guys that present themselves in the night ahead. It’s particularly easy to imagine, actually, because it’s a scene I witness every weekend- but this review isn’t about me. No, let’s keep the focus on Ke$ha, her sex-infused lyrics, surprisingly catchy pop beats, and her expectedly atrocious debut,
Animal.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I had high hopes. I mean, Ke$ha is a girl who became famous for two things: 1) throwing up at a party thrown by Perez Hilton and 2) being “the girl” that sings in Flo Rida’s “Right Round.” Just looking through her song titles- “Party At A Rich Dude's House,” “Hungover,” “Take It Off,” and “V.I.P.” - and you would assume that the songs’ content revolves around tales of various cocks, taking off boys’ pants, and partying til you puke. Yes, you would be absolutely correct by those assumptions.
On the other hand, nobody is expecting the soundtrack to a banger to be deep and meaningful. In this sense, Ke$ha succeeds in matching the style, lyrics, and delivery on
Animal - it’s all a bit slutty and raunchy. Her slurred singing shares the duty on
Animal with her “rapping,” which is actually much more along the lines of spoken-word with attitude. Ke$ha’s rap delivery is mostly dull, but she attempts to add some flair to the delivery with the same style you’d expect from a 16-year old girl displaying the best of her talents on various Facebook-walls with a delightful “music video.” Her singing doesn’t earn Ke$ha a whole lot of love, either, as it sounds “unnatural” at best. She simply doesn’t have the talent- and it makes me wonder if the record executives that signed her realized she had any songs on Animal other than the hit, “Tik Tok.”
You’ve undoubtedly heard this delectable party hit before; if you’re anywhere near society, that is. “Tik Tok” is quintessential Ke$ha- a party-hard mentality, an upbeat atmosphere, and sexy lyrics like
“And now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger / But we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger / I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk / Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk.” The song attempts at a little more diversity and depth with moments where it slows down and speeds up again, giving Ke$ha the chance to add a cringeworthy
“Woah-ah-oh oh.” Though, despite it’s faults, “Tik Tok” is catchy. If it wasn’t for the fact that the 83% of the time this song is played the room is trashed, it might be stuck in you head the next morning instead of a throbbing headache (“Tik Tok” is better, but not by
too much).
The rest of
Animal mirrors what you’ve heard on Tik Tok almost exactly. There’s a few atrocious moments like “Stephen,” a playful song about Ke$ha seducing her history teacher who because she “wants to get her hands in his khaki pants.” For the most part though,
Animal is entirely predictable and downright horrible. The only aspect that makes me think twice about asserting this is the beats on Ke$ha’s debut. Producer Dr. Luke’s neo-disco beats are mostly adequate, even on
Animals’ worst like Dinosaur. This will surely make for some tasty remixes on the road to come, but for now it might be best to ignore them in favor of saving your ears from Ke$ha.
Ke$ha’s raunchy debut sounds like she had a lot of fun recording it- but is it fun for the listener? Well, that has a simple answer- Sober: absolutely not. Drunk: it depends what stage you’re at, but
Animal DOES make girls think it’s ok to seduce any guy at arm’ reach. This style of women “empowerment” has been done before, most notably in my opinion from the Pussycat Dolls, and I think Ke$ha knows she’s a bit late to the party, per se. This leads me to believe that
Animal’s over-the-top sexual innuendos and clear-cut objectives is probably compensating for this. Unfortunately, the music is all the worse for this, and you’re going to want to stear far away from animal unless of course it’s 3 am on a Saturday morning and you’re
really desperate.
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