Ke$ha – Animal (a J!-ENT World Groove Digital Album Review)

January 6, 2010 by Dennis Amith 

“Animal” is an entertaining album debut for Ke$ha with a good number of solid, upbeat and energetic tracks that definitely showcase her vocal style and her ability to project that party girl feel.  But I get a feeling there is a lot more to the Ke$ha creatively and vocally than what we’ve heard on this album.

ARTIST: Ke$ha

DIGITAL ALBUM: Animal

LABEL: RCA Records Label

DURATION: 46:20

RELEASE DATE: January 5, 2010

Music artist Ke$ha had a solid year for 2009 with her collaboration for Flo Rida’s “Right Round and then her debut single “TiK ToK” reaching #1 on various charts worldwide.

But the artist has been featured in a variety of publications telling her story of persistence as a music artist who had a rough upbringing and then going to Los Angeles in order to make her dream of becoming a music artist come true.  Having written songs and providing background vocals for other well-known musical artists, Ke$ha wasn’t paid for her role with “Right Round” nor did she want to be credited.  She was an artist that wanted to be known as a legitimate artist and with “TiK ToK”, she definitely made her name known in the musical world.

Although, compared to artists such as Lady GaGa and also receiving criticism for her songs becoming a bit to sexually reckless especially after years of musical artists who were known for their “girl power” lyrics.  But from what I’ve read so far, Ke$ha is a well-balanced artist that can easily transition from R&B and pop tracks to Country music and needless to say, I was kind of curious where her debut album “Animal” was going go.   A mix of different musical genres or keeping consistent to “TiK ToK”?

After listening to “Animal”, you do get the “TiK ToK” style of songs with upbeat tracks such as “Your Love is My Drug”, “Take It Off”, “Backstabber” and “Blah Blah Blah” but then you get to songs like “Dinosaur” and I was asking myself, “WTF…is this?”.  In fact, it was a bit too L’Trimm (known for their one hit 80′s song “Cars that Go Boom”) for my tastes and then you get to a song like “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” and it sounds a bit too Katy Perry meets Kelly Clarkson.

So, overall you do get a mix bag of tracks that work very well, some that really showcase her strengths as a songwriter and vocalist and a few songs that fall a bit flat.  If anything, Ke$ha definitely has the naughty girl lyrics going in her songs and then you get songs such as “Animal”, “Hungover” and “Stephen” and you get a serious side of Ke$ha.

Overall, a good amount of synth-driven dance music with her rebel girl style and lyrics.  Definitely a gender play of what works with a lot of male R&B/pop stars, I’m sure that Ke$ha’s lyrical play of having sex, having fun, getting drunk is probably going to be appreciated as her music resonates strongly within her fans.

Where we have seen Britney Spears and Lady GaGa demonstrate this style which has worked perfectly for them, “Animal” is an entertaining album debut for Ke$ha with a good number of solid, upbeat and energetic tracks that definitely showcase her vocal style and her ability to project that party girl feel.  But I get a feeling there is a lot more to the Ke$ha creatively and vocally than what we’ve heard on this album.