The UrbanWire

^{(All pictures courtesy of Ke$ha’s official website)}

Most of you may know Kesha (often stylised as Ke$ha) from her catchy electropop hit single “TiK ToK” which gave her the honour of being the female artiste with the highest number of digital downloads, and second overall, at 610,000. But, did you know that the 22-year-old provided the vocals for Flo-Rida’s “Right Round”, the champion that reigned with 636,000 downloads, as well?

Yes, so watch out world, her debut album, Animal, is definitely going to be a chart topper.

The Hits

A definite hit from the album was “Stephen”, a gospel inspired track that faded out into Kesha’s signature rough street style. The song starts with her complaining about how ugly her object of desire’s girlfriend is, but fades to her whining in the catchy chorus, “Stephen/ I’m feeling pathetic/ I can’t take rejection/ Why won’t you call me?” This track is undeniably a very fun song for any lovelorn girl to listen to.

More rhythmic tracks like “Hungover”, “Animal” and “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”, show off her vocal prowess that may remind you a lot of the Avril Lavigne of yore. In fact, “Hungover” has a very strong resemblance to “I’m With You” and “Happy Ending” both by punk princess Avril. Ditto to “Blind” and “Party at a Rich Dude’s House”.

If you’re expecting the “TiK ToK” Kesha, her signature style still prevails in tracks like “Blah Blah Blah (feat. 3OH!3)” and “Take It Off”. The latter sampled a rather rude childhood ditty “The Streets of Cairo” that everyone would recognise as the standard snake charmer tune.

Of course, Kesha put her own spin on the lyrics changing it from one of the many (rude) variations, “There’s a place in France, where naked women dance” to “There’s a place down town where the freaks all come around”. Brilliant and original. Kudos to the lyrical genius of the song, but not so much to the overused synthesiser.

The Misses

The award for ‘Most Irritating Song’ on this album definitely goes to “Backstabber”. This track sounds like a bad cheer with repetitive shouting of “You’re such a backstabber/ You’re such a shit-talker”. After a few times of that, you’d really want to stab yourself, one way or another. Take the crazy down a notch here, Kesha.

“Dinosaur” also rings a similar bell to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” with the cheerleader-type tune and playground lyrics, “Hey you old man man/ Why you staring at me/ Mack on me and my friends it’s kinda creepy”. This song also has the potential to be very annoying after a few rounds.

Tracks like “V.I.P”, “Boots & Boys” and “Your Love Is My Drug” were almost tuneless with the last one being saved by a passable chorus.

“Kiss N Tell” had shades of techno inspiration that had a little too much going on, resulting in a very messy arrangement.

The Verdict

Overall, Animal proves to be a good effort from Kesha. She sounds a little confused on what direction to take on this album with a mish-mash of different inspirations. Call it diversity if you want, but what makes the album shout KE$HA is definitely her signature rough vocals that either makes you want to groove to the beat, or stick a piece of duct tape over her mouth. Love her or hate her, she’s definitely one to watch out for.

Title: Animal

Artiste: Ke$ha

Language: English

Record Label: RCA

Release Date: Jan 5

Track list:

1) Your Love Is My Drug

2) TiK ToK

3) Take It Off

4) Kiss N Tell

5) Stephen

6) Blah Blah Blah (feat. 3!OH3)

7) Hungover

8) Party At A Rich Dude’s House

9) Backstabber

10) Blind

11) Dinosaur

12) Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

13) Boot & Boys

14) Animal

15) V.I.P

^{(All pictures courtesy of Filmofilia)}

As much as the incessant blast of the soundtrack from the first Chipmunks movie was annoying, the Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, was an enjoyable film.

Joining Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) are the Chipettes, Brittany (Christina Applegate), Jeanette (Anna Faris) and Eleanor (Amy Poehler) who are the female version of the Chipmunks. Don’t underestimate the power of 6 singing animated rodents; they’re almost too cute for words.

The movie starts off with Dave (Jason Lee), their “father” of sorts, being sent to the hospital, thanks to Alvin. The Chipmunks, who were told that they had to go to school, temporarily fall under the care of their incompetent slob of a cousin, Toby (Zachary Levi). Mad props to Jason and Zachary for acting convincingly across non-existent CGI animated co-stars.

Hijinks, like accidentally hurling the Nintendo Wii remote into the TV, ensue.

Typical high school stuff comes next with Alvin indirectly causing Simon to get “swirlies” and also making Theodore’s worst nightmare come true. Their old nemesis, Ian Hawke (David Cross), also comes back to haunt them. To top it all off, they fall in love with the Chipettes too.

Apart from the predictable storyline and slapstick humour, the movie was thoroughly entertaining with a very upbeat soundtrack, especially from the Chipettes.

The Chipettes, comprised lead singer Brittany, bespectacled Jeanette and chubby Eleanor, sang covers of popular songs like Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold”. Their rendition of Beyoncé Knowles’ “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” is a crowd puller and a personal favourite, complete with dance moves.

Filipino singing sensation Charice Pempengco, who recently performed at the Singapore Idol finale, makes a surprise appearance as herself belting out Alicia Keys’ “No One”.

The movie followed the tried and tested storyline of imparting the wisdom and importance of teamwork without being too cheesy, which makes for good fun for the whole family. However, a little more exploration of Toby’s backstory instead of showing the odd snippet of his geek days in high school, would have had an added compelling factor for the movie.

Official Trailer:

Release Details:
Opens : Dec 24
Duration: 89 min
Language: English
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation/Comedy
Director: Betty Thomas
Cast: Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Anna Faris, Amy Poehler and Christina Applegate
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

All images courtesy of TATY Press Portal and t.A.T.u’s official Pinger.

Bad vocals and uninspired beats make up most of  Waste Management, the long awaited third English album from Russian faux-lesbian duo t.A.T.u .

When Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova burst into the electropop scene in 2002, they caused much controversy with their hit single “All The Things She Said”, showing both girls kissing in their music video.

Lena Katina (sporting red hair) came to Singapore during the MTV Asia Awards 2004. The feisty girl even told the cheering crowd “Silence, please!” when she was giving her speech on stage. Unfortunately, Yulia was “sick” (but later confirmed to be pregnant) at that point of time and couldn’t be there.

Oops, lesbian-cover blown.

Remember that edgy pair in their other hit single “All About Us” that showed tough fighting, a shoot out and both of them singing forcefully? Forget those girls now. They’ve gone soft with weak vocals in most of their tracks.

Okay, English may not be their first language but the least they could do was to put more strength into their vocals instead of concentrating on the pronunciation. Their 14-track album was nothing but one long bad dance party with brief glimmers of hope.

The Hits

Their second track, “You and I”, had slightly stronger vocals and a catchier hook than the rest of the songs. “You and I” (also known as Finding t.A.T.u) was also part of the soundtrack for the movie of the same title, starring the girls themselves as well as Mischa Barton.

The saving grace of the album was definitely the Russian song “Marsianskie Glaza (Martian Eyes)”. Maybe, because it was sung in their native tongue, the girls seemed much more at ease with this number and they could focus on their vocal quality instead of the language. It was definitely a nice break from the terrible beats of the previous songs with soothing guitar riffs. It reminded me a little of Nelly Furtado’s “All Good Things (Come To An End)”.

“Fly on the Wall” was also another great track, with a good hook minus the boring rhythm overpowering the girls voices. Without a doubt, this number proved itself to be a danceable song.

There are also 3 bonus tracks: the remixed versions of “White Robe”, “Don’t Regret” and “Running Blind”. The first 2 sounded infinitely better in Russian and the remaining track had a foot-tapping beat that would be suitable for the dance floor.

The Misses

The album got off to a bad start with “White Robe” as their first track with their monotonous vocals and boring bass beats. The lyrics make no logical sense but they make a load of lyrical sense. It would’ve made a better poem than a song.

Subsequent tracks “Sparks”, “Snowfalls“ and “Little People” headed down a slippery slope to the trance/techno genre that will remind you of being in a club playing bad music. Ditto to “Running Blind”.

“Don’t Regret” was mostly forgettable and tired and almost devoid of a note-worthy chorus.

And then, out of nowhere comes “Waste Management”, which was a tad strange as most people would expect an instrumental piece to kick start the album. The record suddenly takes a tribal turn with the track “Time of the Moon”, but the instrumental was let down by the girls’ vocals and blasé tone.

The Verdict

Even if you’re t.A.T.u’s number 1 fan, I would strongly suggest you get the original Russian version of this album Vesyolye Ulybiki (translated as Happy Smiles). The girls don’t seem to be able to catch the beat of their own songs singing in English.

Title: Waste Management

Artiste: t.A.T.u

Language: Russian and English

Record Label: Coqueiro Verde Records

Release Date: Dec 15

Track list:

1. ”White Robe”  – 3:14

2. “You and I”  – 3:14

3. “Sparks”  – 3:09

4. “Snowfalls” – 3:16

5.”Marsianskie Glaza”  – 3:09

6. “Little People” – 3:28

7, “Waste Management” – 2:05

8. “Running Blind” – 3:40

9.”Fly on the Wall”  – 3:57

10.”Time of the Moon” – 3:24

11.”Don’t Regret”  – 3:09

Bonus Tracks:

12. “Beliy Plaschik” (Fly Dream Remix)” – 5:32

13. “Running Blind (Transformer Remix)” – 3:53

14. “Ne Zhaley (Sniper Remix)” – 4:58