On Nov. 29, glittery gutter princess Ke$ha released her first EP, Cannibal, as a follow up to her smash hit first album, Animal. The EP, which consists of 9 tracks and features current top 40 hit “We R Who We R,” follows in the poppy, synth heavy footsteps of its predecessor.
Kesha Sebert, known as Ke$ha, has attained pop stardom and notoriety for her signature crude lyrics, sing-rapping and liberal use of autotune. With Cannibal, Ke$ha certainly provides the upbeat, bass-pumping vulgarity which marked her rise to stardom; however, the quality of the slower pieces has skyrocketed.
The standout song on the EP, “The Harold Song,” features a soft melody and surprisingly sensitive lyrics which forsake alcohol and parties to describe a tragic young love, in which the characters are “drunk off of nothing but each other ‘til the sunlight.” Other slower songs include the comparatively mellow “C U Next Tuesday,” a medium tempo song about a bootycall, featuring a somewhat sad melody and dark undertones. The EP also includes a remix of Ke$ha’s song “Animal,” the namesake of her first CD, a sweetly humble and introspective celebration of Ke$ha’s success and a calmer, less vulgar examination of her hard-partying ways.
When it comes to the fast, “trashy” songs for which Ke$ha has garnered a reputation, Cannibal certainly delivers. The title track, “Cannibal,” is an autotune-heavy dance track. The song is undeniably fun, with a deliciously fierce chorus in which Ke$ha chants, “I eat boys up, breakfast and lunch / Then when I’m thirsty, I drink their blood / Carnivore, animal, I am a cannibal / I eat boys up, you better run.”
The second track, “We R Who We R,” debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 as the first single from the EP, and is a fun and lyrically harmless track akin to Ke$ha’s previous hits, “Tik Tok” and “Take It Off.” Ke$ha has described the song as a response to the recent teen suicides as a result on sexual orientation-based bullying; however, its lack of lyrical specificity results in an ultimately unoriginal tune.
This line is crossed, however, in the song “Grow a Pear,” in which Ke$ha brutally emasculates a sensitive man who she deems too feminine. The lyrics “I just can’t date a dude with a vag” and “Grow a pair and you can call me back / And no, I don’t want to see your mangina” are too petty and judgmental for enjoyment, and the song ultimately falls flat.
The highlight of the EP’s dance tracks is “Blow,” a song veering into deep techno territory and guaranteed to make listeners dance, or at least head-bob.
While Ke$ha’s EP doesn’t introduce any concepts we haven’t seen her explore before, the heightened quality of the slower pieces and the signature fierceness of the dance songs make the EP wholly worthy of a listen, or even a purchase, from anyone who likes to dance.