Ke$ha- "Animal"

Warning: This blog contains heavy amounts of sexually explicit subjects.

We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I have been meaning to review Ke$ha for quite some time but I have been busy taking people's requests. Today I am looking at "Animal," Ke$ha's debut album that took the music world by storm in a controversial way. This is where the catchy but childish "Take it Off", the controversial "Blah Blah Blah", and the okay "Your Love is my Drug" came from. Understand I do not really like Ke$ha's music, and I did my best to not to just insult Ke$ha the entire review. However, I did not hold back my opinions either. Also, just a warning I am also going to get a little preachy about what gender equality actually means later on in this review.

Title: Animal
Year: 2009
Genre: Pop, Hip Hop, Dance, Techno, Playground Music
Artist(s): Ke$ha
Copyright: © 2010 RCA Records, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment

Songs:

1. Your Love is My Drug-

This song opens up sounding like a happier version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." Ke$ha's unique vocals soon enter afterwards sounding somewhat intoxicated. In this song Ke$ha is madly in love with a dude with a beard, although from the sounds of it, it's more of an extremely unhealthy obsession with the bearded man. Hence, he is her drug. The build up to the chorus picks up nicely, and the chorus is the most enjoyable of part of this song. The song has an intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, and outro. What is interesting about this song is how catchy the chorus is and how the synthesizer actually sounds half decent. Overall, a catchy chorus but nothing otherwise noteworthy with way too much slurring and being off pitch on the vocal phrases. 2 out of 5 stars.

2. Tik Tok-

The song opens up with Ke$ha sounding smashed again and very 8-bit-era-Nintendo style keyboard parts and eventually builds up to the rest of the song. This song is basically saying that Ke$ha loves to party, drink lots of Jack Daniels Whiskey, and hates being hit on by drunk guys, although she enjoys the attention. She also likes dudes who look like Mick Jagger, which probably makes a lot of sense if you're really drunk. There is an intro, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre bridge, bridge, and an outro. What makes this song interesting is the fact that the chorus is very catchy, the bridge is enjoyable, and the way the instruments come in one after another. Overall, this song has potential but Ke$ha's drunk, computerized, pitch shifting vocals break the song and steal that potential away. 2 out of 5 stars.

3. Take it Off-

The song opens up on Ke$ha using a synthesizer voice box to a playground/ stereotypical Egyptian melody from the 70's, you know the "There's a place in France where the Alligators dance" melody. After the intro we are treated to a very annoying late 2000s techno bass line in the left speaker and Ke$ha singing with reverb and pitch shifting in the right speaker. This song is about strip clubs and the lude things go on there especially in the back of the club, drinking, and Ke$ha being proud of her life style choices. The glitter is also a reference to the strippers. There is an intro, verse, chorus, bridge, keyboard "solo", second bridge with "oooh" lyrics, and an outro. What is noteworthy in this song was the idea of using the playground melody, the male backing vocalists, and the drums at the outro. Overall, this song had a somewhat creative premise but Ke$ha's drunk singing and the annoying techno bass line that never stops makes this song very hard to listen too. The lyrical content fails to carry any real creativity. 1 out of 5 stars.

4. Kiss N' Tell-

This song opens up with some simplistic synthesizer playing followed by a drum set and Ke$ha's voice. Her voice sounds comparatively better than before. Ke$ha has found out her boyfriend cheated on her through his friends and she is royally pissed at him. She proceeds to call him a "slut", but then ironically says later she would prefer a man that was more well hung anyways. This song has an intro, verse, a terrible sounding pre-chorus, a lively chorus, a sickly sounding bridge, a post-bridge, and a final chorus with Ke$ha harmonizing with herself multiple times as the outro. What makes this song interesting is... the chorus I guess. The rest of the song doesn't know what style it wants to be and is very lacking at being listenable. Overall, it has a catchy chorus but some parts like the pre-chorus, bridge, and the confusing lyrical content really drag it down. 1 out of 5 stars.

5. Stephen-

The song opens up with Ke$ha attempting to sound like a barbershop quartet, but falls short because she is off pitch at parts. The intro continues until Ke$ha talks and has an echo on the synth voice box that seriously, to quote Todd in the Shadows of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, "sounds like a chainsaw going through a Pacman machine" and the verse starts up. Ke$ha is obsessed with a boy named Stephen and wants to steal him away from his current girlfriend. She keeps asking him to call her and later in the song blatantly states that she wants Steven to to be the object of her affections and wishes to "wrap" him in her love. With that in mind he is likely not calling her because she is acting like a stalker. There is an interesting but terrible intro, a verse with really bad valley girl singing, a somewhat pleasant but auto-tune driven chorus, a bridge with bad singing and a very narcissistic emotion to it, and a drunk sounding outro. What makes this song interesting is that this song has a lot of harmonies in it, but none of them are that great. Again, the chorus is catchy but in a bad way because it will creep up on you at random times of the day and beat you over the head. Overall, this song has interesting ideas but the creepy and narcissistic lyrics, off pitch singing, and bad harmonizing ruin it. 1 out of 5 stars.

6. Blah Blah Blah (Ft. 30H!3)-

Ahh, my least favorite song by any artist ever. The song starts off on Ke$ha sighing, then constantly "singing" the phrase "blah blah blah" until the verse starts. In this song Ke$ha is telling a guy she meets at the bar to just shut up and let her screw his brains out. 30H!3 is saying that Ke$ha is full of herself and they are more important. I believe they all agree to a one night three way. -This is where the preaching comes in, playing on where "Stephen" left off: One, I am opposed to sexual objectification such as this in any form, male or female. Two, objectifying men will only give men more right to objectify women. Three, revenge is never the answer. And four, this is not the true road to achieving gender equality.- Now that the preaching is done, this song has an annoying and awful intro, an okay verse, a bad pre-chorus, the worst chorus I've heard in music before, one reason of which is because I know Ke$ha doesn't really have a Boston accent. There is also a mediocre bridge from 30H!3 with a TERRIBLE and grammatically incorrect ending, and a repetitive outro with the keyboard constantly playing the same lick it has been playing through out the song. There is absolutely nothing interesting about this song. Overall, this song is sexist, obnoxious, poorly written with bad singing and instrumentation, and a nightmare inducing experience. I'm giving this negative points. -5 out of 5 stars.

7. Hungover-

This song opens up drums reminiscent of Kanye West's "Jesus Walk With Me." Ke$ha soon comes in sounding actually like a good singer albeit with some weird phrases. Ke$ha has woken up from a party where she met a guy she really liked but he used her for a one night stand. She can't stop thinking about him and she can't tell if she misses him or if she is just hung over. This probably ties back to all of the Jack references and is so far her most human song on the album. There is an intro, a verse, a very beautiful chorus, a verse with weird echoes, an emotional bridge, an small interlude, and fitting outro. What makes this song interesting is the fact that Ke$ha stays on pitch 98% of the time, and only is off pitch in her backing vocals. The harmonizing actually works, and the instruments in the background actually create a convincing emotional setting with a lot of movement. Overall, a very human song that proves that Ke$ha can write good songs and makes me wonder why Ke$ha couldn't write more songs like this. It's also a nice way to forget about "Blah Blah Blah." 4 out of 5 stars.

8. Party at a Rich Dude's House-

We get a very mid 90's rock opening with where the drums come in first, and then a distorted guitar can be heard. Ke$ha keeps singing until there is a break and then the chorus comes in. Ke$ha abandons the humanity from the previous song in exchange for more crazy partying where she urinates in a salad bowl and throws up in a closet, has sex with a guy, and loses her coat all at a rich dude's house. We get a good intro, an okay verse, a very Katy Perry style chorus, a hilarious interlude where Ke$ha sings "da na na na" over the guitar like Beavis and Butt-Head would do, a short pre-chorus, an okay bridge with bad lyrics, an annoying hip-hop interlude, a keyboard "solo" which totally should have been a guitar solo, and a final chorus as the outro. What is interesting in this song is the rock intro and the "da na na na" part which was very over the top. Overall, this piece had a little potential but the lyrics and the rapping, but the lack of a guitar solo destroyed that potential. It was also a tasteless follow up to "Hungover." 2 out of 5 stars.

9. Backstabber-

This song starts off a little bit like a salsa song with a trumpet but soon turns into a generic late 2000s pop techno song with singing where Ke$ha sounds asleep and angry at the same time. In this song one of Ke$ha's friend has spread lies about her personal life. Ke$ha calls her friend a backstabber and tells her that everyone Ke$ha knows thinks she is a lunatic. There is an interesting intro, a boring verse, a boring chorus, a boring bridge, a somewhat interesting chorus, and an outro with Ke$ha's signature drunk vocals. What made this song interesting was the use of the trumpet and the "everybody knows it" backing lyric Ke$ha sang. Unfortunately the trumpet just played the same five notes at different parts in the song which probably means that they recorded it once and played it multiple times. You know, that must have been fun for the trumpet player. In fact they have probably recorded each part once and repeated through out this entire album. Overall, this song has interesting ideas but yet again they are poorly executed as the song is supposed to represent anger, but Ke$ha sounds asleep half the time. This was also lazily put together in the studio. 1 out of 5 stars.

10. Blind-

The opening is vaguely reminiscent of "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. It remains just as silly but turns into a weirder song with the synthesizer and Ke$ha's Katy Perry/Akon style singing. Yet again one of Ke$ha's boyfriends has cheated on her, this time she is calling him blind because he doesn't know that he is hurting her. Ke$ha says she will not miss him. We get an intro, a verse, a pre-chorus, and a very good chorus that hits home the frustration and message of the song perfectly. The bridge is okay, and the final chorus until Ke$ha sings A'capella and I can hear the rough and mucous heavy timbre of her voice. What makes this song interesting is the correct emoting, the strong chorus, and the workable transition from silly to powerful. The song is weak everywhere else starting off with the silly intro, and then Ke$ha's drunken vocals holding back the song's potential. Overall, a decent song set back by Ke$ha's off key singing. 3 out of 5 stars.

11. Dinosaur-

The song opens up with a dinosaur roaring, then it turns into a song very similar to the "bananas" part in "Holla Back Girl" by Gwen Stefani with the same annoying rapping and drums except this one has the obnoxious "bonus" of very annoying filtered auto tune backing vocals. Ke$ha is being hit on by a creepy old dude, and is calling him an old man through out the ENTIRE song. He is creepy, but there comes a point where you're just being rude. There is eventually an interlude with a whistling solo. There is an annoying opening, an annoying verse, a surprising voice whistle with the WORST auto tuned laughing I have ever heard in my life, a bridge with Ke$ha harmonizing over the whistling with terrible backing vocals by Ke$ha, a crappy rap interlude, and a mediocre chorus as the finale. The ONLY thing that makes this song interesting is the whistling section, which is reminiscent of seeing a peanut in a turd. This song sounds like "You Spin me Round (Like a Record Baby)" by Dead or Alive mixed with "Holla Back Girl." It is more annoying than "Friday" and "Whip My Hair" combined, and it has the attitude of a child on a playground going "nyah nyah nyah na na nyah." The vocals are especially horrendous with notes that are auto tuned off pitch ON PURPOSE, the singing even manages to be worse than "Blah Blah Blah." I can sympathize because there are a lot of creeps in the world, but Ke$ha should remember the rule of being respectful to the elderly. Overall, this song is the true musical embodiment of S-H-I-Z-N-A-T!!! -6 out of 5 stars.

12. Dancing with Tears in My Eyes-

This song opens up sounding like someone broke Akon's voice box and rewound it, but soon turns into a 30 Seconds to Mars song with Ke$ha sounding depressed and feeling like she can't go on. In an "ironic" twist it seems that Ke$ha has destroyed the love of her life by either cheating on him or lying too much. Ke$ha now feels her life is over because she has lost him. It has a funny intro, a mellow dramatic verse, a sleepy sounding pre-chorus, a pause, a generic 2009 break up song chorus, an okay bridge with annoying backing vocals, a terrible voice echo interlude, a random pause and then another mellow dramatic chorus with what sounds like a keyboard being forced quit. What makes this song sort of interesting was the bridge. Everything else is generic and badly emoted. Overall, this song is boring , not a good followup to Dinosaur, and sucks even more when compared to "Hung Over." 1 out of 5 stars.

13. Boots & Boys-

I am running out of patience here, the music is just too awful. No one who writes a song like "Dinosaur" deserves to be taken seriously. In this song Ke$ha says she loves both boots and boys, especially the cowboy kind. This song sounds like if Tim Curry sang a techno funk song. The singing is horrible. Plus there is a solo where the keyboard sounds like it is going to self destruct. Overall, this song is crappy. 1 out of 5 stars.

14. Animal-

There is actual piano in this song. It sounds like a late 90s love song. The singing had potential but Ke$ha's tone deafness has ruined it. The chorus is catchy, as always. Ke$ha is asking the man that she is interested in to have sex with her before the night is over because he seems timid. Overall the song is okay, but too mellow dramatic and shows Ke$ha can't decide what sound she wants for her self. 2 out of 5 stars.

Audio Mixing:

The audio mixing is overly compressed making all of the higher pitched instruemnts louder. That is the problem, why would anyone want make Ke$ha's voice audible? Also I despise Auto Tune, it is like sports steroids for singers. Anyone who relies on Auto Tune either is tone deaf or is a quitter. Also auto tuning out of pitch isn't "experimental", it's stupid and obnoxious!

Singing:

Ke$ha can't sing, she shows signs of potential but her style is awful and hard to understand. Her voice is very mucus heavy and throaty, she slurs too much, and plays with auto tune like a five year old. The bad harmonizing is also half the reason this album suffers.

Lyrics:

The lyrics are good and bad because they are easy to understand, but mainly poorly written about crappy subjects.

Instrumentation:

The instrumentation is the other reason the album suffers, because it is just a random mediocre keyboard player stealing all the attention while the other instruments provide static support, especially that trumpet player from "Back Stabber". I would complain that there is no bass guitar and only a synthesizer doing low notes, but that just means every bass player in LA was spared from being credited for this atrocity. Only the choruses and some of the bridges were good, but that is because Ke$ha has been a song writer all of her life and as such I am also granting her the title of "master of psychological warfare."

What I didn't like:

EVERYTHING except "Hungover".

What I did like:

"Hungover" proves that Ke$ha COULD write good songs but chooses to write this tripe instead.

Who would enjoy this album:

Whatever amount of fans Ke$ha has left.

Overall: This album had potential but it was ruined by poor editing, writing, playing, and singing. Plus there were some fishy similarities to other songs on this album that were all over the place. I hate this album so much, I would rather hear Rebecca Black, Nick Jonas, and Pete Wentz do a collaboration album then ever listen to this embodiment of arrogance and trash, and I used to pray for the end of Wentz's career as a musician and "bass player." Next week I am going to through a spiritual cleansing with "Quadrophenia" by The Who on my Requests Blog. Now if you excuse me, I need to listen to jazz and heavy metal to get this crap out of my head.

Rating: *

No music videos today. This album was so bad we need Keyboard Cat to save us.

Play Ke$ha off Keyboard Cat!