Cheryl Chia
(All pictures courtesy of Ke$ha’s official website)
Most of you may know Kesha (often stylised as Ke$ha) from her catchy electropop hit single “TiK ToK” which gave her the honour of being the female artiste with the highest number of digital downloads, and second overall, at 610,000. But, did you know that the 22-year-old provided the vocals for Flo-Rida’s “Right Round”, the champion that reigned with 636,000 downloads, as well?
Yes, so watch out world, her debut album, Animal, is definitely going to be a chart topper.
The Hits
A definite hit from the album was “Stephen”, a gospel inspired track that faded out into Kesha’s signature rough street style. The song starts with her complaining about how ugly her object of desire’s girlfriend is, but fades to her whining in the catchy chorus, “Stephen/ I’m feeling pathetic/ I can’t take rejection/ Why won’t you call me?” This track is undeniably a very fun song for any lovelorn girl to listen to.
More rhythmic tracks like “Hungover”, “Animal” and “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”, show off her vocal prowess that may remind you a lot of the Avril Lavigne of yore. In fact, “Hungover” has a very strong resemblance to “I’m With You” and “Happy Ending” both by punk princess Avril. Ditto to “Blind” and “Party at a Rich Dude’s House”.
If you’re expecting the “TiK ToK” Kesha, her signature style still prevails in tracks like “Blah Blah Blah (feat. 3OH!3)” and “Take It Off”. The latter sampled a rather rude childhood ditty “The Streets of Cairo” that everyone would recognise as the standard snake charmer tune.
Of course, Kesha put her own spin on the lyrics changing it from one of the many (rude) variations, “There’s a place in France, where naked women dance” to “There’s a place down town where the freaks all come around”. Brilliant and original. Kudos to the lyrical genius of the song, but not so much to the overused synthesiser.
The Misses
The award for ‘Most Irritating Song’ on this album definitely goes to “Backstabber”. This track sounds like a bad cheer with repetitive shouting of “You’re such a backstabber/ You’re such a shit-talker”. After a few times of that, you’d really want to stab yourself, one way or another. Take the crazy down a notch here, Kesha.
“Dinosaur” also rings a similar bell to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” with the cheerleader-type tune and playground lyrics, “Hey you old man man/ Why you staring at me/ Mack on me and my friends it’s kinda creepy”. This song also has the potential to be very annoying after a few rounds.
Tracks like “V.I.P”, “Boots & Boys” and “Your Love Is My Drug” were almost tuneless with the last one being saved by a passable chorus.
“Kiss N Tell” had shades of techno inspiration that had a little too much going on, resulting in a very messy arrangement.
The Verdict
Overall, Animal proves to be a good effort from Kesha. She sounds a little confused on what direction to take on this album with a mish-mash of different inspirations. Call it diversity if you want, but what makes the album shout KE$HA is definitely her signature rough vocals that either makes you want to groove to the beat, or stick a piece of duct tape over her mouth. Love her or hate her, she’s definitely one to watch out for.
Title: Animal
Artiste: Ke$ha
Language: English
Record Label: RCA
Release Date: Jan 5
Track list:
1) Your Love Is My Drug
2) TiK ToK
3) Take It Off
4) Kiss N Tell
5) Stephen
6) Blah Blah Blah (feat. 3!OH3)
7) Hungover
8) Party At A Rich Dude’s House
9) Backstabber
10) Blind
11) Dinosaur
12) Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
13) Boot & Boys
14) Animal
15) V.I.P