Frank Kogan

Or the lyrics outshout the sound in a lot of people's commentary. As for sound, "TiK ToK" and "Blah Blah Blah" are the most aggressive tracks on the album; I was surprised at how much the rest is down-a-notch.

What I'm trying to get at here, though, isn't so much how you and I perceive Ke$ha (or the discrepancy between her presentation and how we perceive her), but what her party is straight-up signifying about itself. My saying "EXTREME" might or might not be steering us wrong. The party in "Party At A Rich Dude's House" is OPPORTUNISTIC: you can trash his living room and throw up in his closet, since he can always replace his wardrobe and buy a new living room. So the party is like a tide that simply looks for where it can settle in, finding this place or that place to unfurl. (Think I'm mixing my metaphors there.) The fact that "vomit" can be a positive signifier and not as beat or rock or punk flaunting of self-destruction but as a form of vibrant life (or something?) is what I'm trying to make something of, so "pathology" isn't the right word either. "Mess" might be what I'm looking for. Ke$ha the messa.

Think of how hangovers are portrayed in popular culture: the treatment tends to be half-comic and half congratulatory (unless it's a serious TV problem movie about alcoholism or addiction). Whereas irl a hangover might be a sign of fucking up and that the person is in trouble and the body is breaking down. Ke$ha's "Hungover," uncharacteristically, goes for the irl version, and doesn't seem to fit with the album (and is the third-least-good song on there), though I suppose it makes perfect sense as a cheesy bit of abyss-staring rounding out an album full of blatant partying.