I’ve always had a thing for girls in their twenties, college grads around the time of their first job. The reason is because they tend to be looser at that age -and I don’t mean more promiscuous. I mean more hedonistic, more into fun for funs sake. Going to clubs, dancing, drinking, partying: got brass in pocket, self-confidence having made it through the education system, a bit of an attitude.
Pretty soon after comes serious boyfriends and marriage and kids and the coolest girl at the Mudd Club has morphed into my Mom and out of my life. This has happened to me so often sometimes I feel like I’m in a time warp where I do the same things I did thirty years ago and all my exes move on to adulthood.
On the first album of 2010, and a potential smash hit, Ke$ha is that girl. Animal is about boots and boys uber alles, it is about the purity of vapidity, about the party in the party at a time when there is no punishment for the wild flair of the last gasp of youth. Animal lets it’s hair down and dances into the night.
Ke$ha is an LA girl who first came to fame singing the girl part on Flo Rida’s awsome “Right Round” before going it… well, not alone with the brains behind “Since You’ve Been Gone” and “I Kissed A Girl” Dr. Luke on board, but surely on her own way. Animal is a perfect BPM plus synth album with melodies aplenty, beats insane, a smattering of raps and four writers per song.The result is an album chock full of hits. Will it be “Boots And Boys”? “Kiss And Tell”? “Your Love Is My Drug”? All of the above. These 80s pop sweeties are gonna be eaten up by Z-100. Sure, Ke$ha’s voice is nondescript, sure it’s a producers game. But it’s a game with a vision and it’s a pop sensation so addictive it is almost ridiculous lean, and cool and sexy.
If Animal gets popular, if it sells a lot, I’ll love it with all my heart. But it demands a huge audience to matter. It won’t function in a vacuum and if it bombs…. Nah, it won’t bomb, no way. But if we don’t get the Guetta and Tiesto remixes, if it doesn’t become a ubiquitous smash through the summer, it will disappear. If it doesn’t happen big it won’t matter at all.
But till then, I prefer it to Flo Rida’s The R.O.O.T.s. It is so true to its hedonistic vision it is a pure blast, a sugar rush of adrenaline. It’s possible 2010 has found its pop album of the year in the first week.