Frank Kogan

The evolution of my "taste": Here is all my Ke$ha commentary prior to last Monday, when I knocked out my "Blah Blah Blah" review at the last second for the Singles Jukebox.

October 29, 2009 in koganbot: "Ke$ha 'TiK ToK': Ambitious, shiny party girl who's done guest spots with everybody has OK sparkle here, while Luke accompanies her on OK toy-gizmos. Not as bright and sassy as she wants to be; I'm giving her the borderline on hope. BORDERLINE NONTICK."

November 6, 2009 in the Singles Jukebox: "Happy bratty party girl with a predictably sassy attitude and a good but not great Luke tune, her fun mannerisms are more forced and overbearing and vastly less effective than those of antecedents like Salt-N-Pepa and L'Trimm, though my letting her into the same sentence as them means I'm crossing my fingers in hope for her future. [6]"

November 7, 2009 in the Singles Jukebox: "I'm generally fine with Ke$ha's voice, though, or I wouldn't be referencing L'Trimm; L'Trimm (who've got four or five songs I'd give 10s to and everything on their second album is 8 or better) were a couple of kids showing off for anyone who would listen. Reading Erika and Tal I can imagine Ke$ha taking the giggling girl thing to desperation; what's wrong here is too much party sound, that fuzz bass, Ke$ha's putting on all those voices; it's the singer's and producer's desperation more than the protagonist's and it sounds crowded and unpleasant (as opposed to the relatively spare Davis-Stone-Klein Miami bass landscape in which Tigra and Bunny let their imaginations romp about). Actually, a crowded half-desperate party could sound great, and Ke$ha could sound great in it, but not this one."

November 11, 2009 in poptimists: "Ke$ha 'Tik Tok': I'm coming 'round to this, thanks in part to Tal's and Erika's discussion down in the Jukebox comment thread. My main stumbling block is how forced Ke$ha's joy sounds; but that can create force, the music partying its way to a party that comes a lot less naturally than it pretends. TICK."

November 19, 2009 in koganbot: "Several weeks later, 'TiK ToK' clearly should have been a tick. I was reviewing it more for what it wasn't than what it was (I did a better job over on poptimists). This still falls far short of its potential, but where, say, L'Trimm had been at ease, this track's uneasiness gives it a hint of desperation, in an uneasy party, hence its own character."

December 26, 2009 in koganbot: "Ke$ha's sober and subtle 'TiK ToK' has risen to number one (sober and subtle compared to everything else I've heard by her, that is; I'm impressed by Ke$ha's total commitment to cheesiness and stupidity, though nothing other than 'TiK ToK' gets the cheese 'n' honey burbling together for an entire song)."