Picture — if you will — the most revolting musical characteristics imaginable. Cheap hooks, check. Bad lyrics, check. Auto-Tune, check. Now run all these ingredients through a blender, slap them together, and dish the mix out on a platter. Then — as a final touch — garnish with glitter. Lots of it.
That’s Ke$ha in a nutshell.
On a Richter Scale of sheer awfulness, this drugged-out 23-year-old is a national disaster. Case in point: Her dollar-sign moniker. Her boozy warbling. Her personal hygiene — or lack thereof.
Yet for reasons still unclear to the entire universe at large, Ke$ha makes serious bank in Hollywood. Say what you will about her appearance or moral character, but this frizzy-maned starlet is churning out club-bumpers by the dozen and, worse, she won’t be disappearing anytime soon.
That said, Cannibal — Ke$ha’s nine song EP and follow up to Animal — is a well-packaged half-hour of electro-pop deliciousness that’s sure to satisfy that pop-trash sweet tooth.
Sure, the record itself offers no nourishment other than the same cheap delights that first catapulted the whiskey-guzzling artist to stardom. But Cannibal, in most ways, is the fast food of the music world: nutritionally empty, yet shamelessly irresistible.
Cannibal’s title track is a contagious opener: a crude and surprisingly off-kilter piece that showcases what little swagger Ke$ha possesses.
Armed with bad girl sass and endless backtalk, she promises to “suck your teeth” and eat someone’s “liver on a platter” because, as her chorus clarifies as many times as humanly possible — she is a “cannibal” who will “eat you up.”
The second track, a digestible pop anthem entitled “We R Who We R,” takes its place as Cannibal’s first smash single. Sure, “We R Who We R” is no “TiK ToK” or “Your Love Is My Drug” — an inanely repetitive chorus leaves much to be desired — but its remaining elements manage to tie the song together. The result is a flavorful tune built on brazen lyrical delivery and infectious melody.
“I wanted to inspire people to be themselves,” Ke$ha said of the track in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a celebration of any sort of quirks or eccentricities . . . I feel like I’m creating this hopefully very youthful and irreverent movement of the kids, of, like, adolescence.”
“We R Who We R” is followed by a strong suite of tunes, including “Sleazy”, a standout track seething with so much snark it falls somewhere between silly and self-indulgent. Ke$ha delivers the lines with a sneer, slinging razor-sharp disses that while lowbrow, lend the impression of cleverness.
Even the danceable “Blow” is one of Cannibal’s brass tacks, compelling listeners to “drink the Kool-Aid” and follow her “lead.” And we oblige, mesmerized by a synthesizer-heavy chorus and cheesy, club-friendly hooks and drumbeats.
Cannibal does have its weaker tracks, including the tastelessly risque “Grow a Pear” and helplessly mediocre “C U Next Tuesday,” but Ke$ha surprises listeners with “The Harold Song,” a well-crafted and shockingly sentimental ballad.
While reminiscent of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”, this track has been scrubbed of all traces of unruliness, deriving sincerity from heartfelt nuance.
All in all, Cannibal is as captivating as a train wreck, re-asserting Ke$ha’s primacy as America’s reigning Queen of Sleaze. While not deserving of critical acclaim or even lavish praise, it’s safe to say the eccentric songstress’s latest release will prove to be a crowdpleaser.
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