I want them both to work with Benny Blanco

[koganbot]

Jonathan and Tal take issue with an obviously snarky photo equation, Erika correctly points out that it may not be snarky (I'm not sure she's right, but she makes a case), and I pitch in with what I think Taylor and Ke$ha may have in common:

They both have something of a killer instinct (though maybe it's Benny Blanco who deserves the credit for Ke$ha's), they're both musically opportunistic, they're both willing to hurt people with song, and - for all Taylor's reflectiveness - they're both riding a mess of emotion. In any event, last week I was fantasizing that Taylor would go to Benny Blanco and say, "I want to do a couple of tracks that have the eruption that you achieved in 'Blah Blah Blah.'" I'm totally certain that Taylor could pull it off. I also think she needs to try. (But these singers are always so hesitant to take my advice; I don't know what's wrong with them.)

Comments

[koganbot]

As for Ke$ha's being funny, I take her seriously whether or not she takes herself seriously, just as I take the Ying Yang Twins seriously. The complexities are there whether they're intended or not; and her walking the line between vomit as integrity and vomit as dysfunction will never fail to interest me, even if she's making herself the butt of a joke - which I'm not sure she is, by the way. Or that's not all she's doing, or all that what she's doing does, anyway. It's not like she can choose to limit or control what we make of her. In any event, just because she's not making Meaningful Statements like Peter Laughner and Lou Reed doesn't mean her slapstick party-girl shtick doesn't take her into the territory of Peter and Lou.

I do wish that, in general, she used more vivid imagery, fewer clichés. (Maybe she should study Taylor.)