Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

In the UK we've been overloaded with honesty in pop music, between Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse we've heard enough inner torment and deep dark confessions to fill a thousand therapy sessions, however in U.S. pop music honesty has been soarly lacking. In response to our taxi cab confessions the U.S. has offered up big label glitz, slick production and a steam of irresistible but defiantly detached superstars. So it was refreshing to hear Ke$ha admit in the build up to the release of Animal that she doesn't take herself seriously and doesn't consider herself an artist. She knows her music is stupid, superficial and largely vapid, she simply states she wants to make music for people to have fun to. Music that you can switch your brain off to and that "everyone" can enjoy. Ke$ha made it clear that she's aware that some artists take music seriously, but she's not one of them. Quite simply Ke$ha makes music to, in her words, "get fucked up" to. As her counterparts on this side of the Atlantic have discovered honesty can be endearing, and her self deprecating flippancy actually gives her a rebellious charm. It's a clever tactic, it's now redundant to call Ke$ha's music vapid; that's the point, that is afterall the joke, and if you're not in on it then I'm afraid the joke is on you.

Approaching Animal is difficult, it's almost too flawed to be believed. Ke$ha is in effect doing to music what Avatar did to cinema, replacing artistry and intellect with cheap yet utterly mesmerizing thrills and effects. Sonically, Animals falls somewhere between Lady Gaga and The Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha has the sense of humour and the bravado of the former but the stupidity and vacuousness of the latter. Unfortunately for Ke$ha she lacks the creativity or song writing talent of Gaga, but thankfully she doesn't have the unwarranted sense of self importance displayed by Fergie and her pals. It takes you about thirty seconds to realize that Animal actually makes Avatar look organic. Every inch of this album feels laboured, a team of producers have slaved away tirelessly to make this album feel alive, recycling cliché after cliché, rehashing a series of overly tired beats, and cramming as many possible electro riffs and effects as possible into each and every track. The end result is something that sounds both incredible familiar but also too erratic and fast moving to ever even threaten to feel dull. Ke$ha voice is almost a parody of a pop star, she has no talent whatsoever as a vocalist but without shame, and without even an attempt to disguise it every last line is layered with auto-tune. It's disgusting at first, it almost feels like a slap in the listeners face, but after a while you get used to it, it becomes a fun in joke as she delivers each of her ridiculous sex rhymes. She plays up to it, making sure all the key punchlines are distorted with computer wizardry. The albums most endearing moment comes in Take It Off where Ke$ha tries to start a U2-eske "Wooah-oh" chorus, of course her voice can't hope to hit the note, but rather than auto-tuning she just leaves in her flat out tune cry. It's a genius moment, it makes you laugh and it makes you cringe as you imagine a drunken sket wailing away at the top of her voice in your local club, and that's exactly the effect she's going for.

Across the album that flies by at a remarkable pace, Ke$ha takes on an array of suitably vapid and morally bankrupt topics. On Stephen Ke$ha talks about flirting with her teacher and how she'd rather be bent over his desk than actually...you know...feeding to her intellect. After all who needs an education when you've got STDs and alcohol right?!....erh...right. Ke$ha must have been actively trying to pick the silliest lines imaginable as she declares "Up On The Chalk Board I Just Love You're Arse, Mmmn...When You Write Notes It Shake, Shake Shakes (Shake, Shake, Shakes)". You never get a chance to pause for breath and evaluate the ridiculousness you've just heard as before the line can even finishes Ke$ha is either faking an orgasm or squealing like a auto-tuned chipmunk. On Party At A Rich Dude's House she takes it to an new level where she actually can't wait for the chorus and starts screeching her own version of the tracks core riff. Of course by comparison her classroom naughtiness feels like a high brow concept in comparison to the subjects of the other twelve tracks; where Ke$ha talks about getting drunk (alot) getting fucked (alot) and bitches about other girls (a hell of alot). Ke$ha says her music is designed to be empowering, but judging by a night out in weatherspoon's it doesn't appear that young girls need any encouragement to get "fucked up", get fucked, throw up and pass out (and not necessarily in that order). While Animals may be on dubious moral footing, it's still manages to capture the moment, it's an album of excess and it's thoroughly contemporary, and in many ways it's a distressing snap shot of modern society. I doubt Ke$ha cares about the moral implications of her musings as she's clearly not one for in depth discussion. She makes this abundantly clear on Blah Blah Blah: "Don't Be A Little Bitch With Your Chit Chat, Just Show Me Where You're Dick's At". It's at this point you realize that Ke$ha's music isn't empowering, Gaga is empowering, Ke$ha is simply degrading to men and women a like. She plays down to every negative stereotype imaginable and does it without an inclining of remorse, and there's not a knowing wink and nudge in sight.

Ke$ha may be cringe inducing in so so many ways but they never manifests themselves as a weakness. Her album is so shameless in it's vane morosity that, as easy as it may be to undermine, your brain is never really engaged enough to feel insulted or patronized. Animal is so unrepentant putting such an emphasis on speed, insanity and shameless punchlines that you end up having too much fun to care about how disgusting Ke$ha really is. As Ke$ha says herself "Who Cares" she's happy "Pissing In The Don Pion" or letting her knickers drop. Practically any track from album opener Your Love Is My Drug to nineth track Backstabber could be released as singles. They are all insanely catchy and they all fly by in an instant, never giving you a second to think. It's only Animal's final five tracks that really let the side down. Dancing With My Tears In My Eyes is a dreary and dull ballad, Dinosaur is horribly misjudged and completely unlikeable, and album closer Animal is a manifestation of all the albums worst traits devoid of any charm. However this near intolerable fifteen minutes can't undermine and an album that is in effect a forty five minute cluster fuck between between 21st Century moral ambivalence and an army of auto pre-produced dancing robots. By the end you'll feel as though you've been gang raped by ignorance, and surprisingly its not an unpleasant experience. Animal is therefore a real surprise, a victory for bad taste and technology over creativity and intellect. For those who have already predetermined that Ke$ha is an abomination to music there is little on Animal to overcome these preconceptions, but for those with an open mind, there is plenty of cheap thrills and catchy hooks to be found on the surprisingly consistent Animal. All in all, Ke$ha and her team have unintentionally managed to produce a vital, damning and perhaps even definitive statement about the state of youth culture in 2010. It's horrifying but undeniably addictive, you have been warned.