Is she totally out-of-control, or totally calculated? These are the questions that both define and dog the career of Ke$ha, a pop star so thoroughly of our moment that she seems from a distance more like the virtual manifestation of a marketing campaign than an actual human being. The dance-pop answer to cock rock, the Los Angeles-born, Nashville-raised upstart singer/rapper dwells on themes of partying and self-empowerment – and, especially, partying as self-empowerment – that’s to Ke$ha what blunts are to Snoop Dogg; her lifeblood – if she slipped and cut herself while in burlesque gyration, she’d probably bleed glitter. Having scored seven Top 10 hits and a couple more equally successful cameos in just three years, Kesha Sebert is who she is; what she is not is apologetic.

“I’m sorry but I am just not sorry” is but one of many Ke$ha-isms on parade in Warrior, her second and against-all-odds excellent album. If you’re not favorably disposed to stadium-sized Europop synth riffs and beats, you might not immediately come to the same conclusion: An acoustic guitar opening on “Crazy Kids” and some patches where the drums drop out for a few dubstep diversions only partially disguise the fact that the… read more »