What's the Ke$ha album like? S&N investigate...

We know, we know. You're supposed to act disdainfully towards Ke$ha. You're supposed to complain about the auto-tune, admit guiltily that the production on "TiK ToK" is top-notch and makes you want to dance, and you're supposed to point out that the lyrics aren't post-modern urban poetry, they're low-brow, if memorable and the dollar sign in her name is just annoying.

But you know what? We don't care. We've mentioned before that we don't believe in 'guilty pleasures' and we're always honest when we're wrong, or when we experience mixed feelings at Shiny & New HQ, so we're going to continue our tradition of 'cards-on-the-table' candour and just put it all out there: Ke$ha's album isn't clever, but my god... it's fun.

And fun is an underrated quality in music these days. What with the advent of music saviour and pop culture prophet Lady GaGa waxing lyrical about artistic intent and Warhol and Haring, and a general backlash against the casual 'laissez-faire' attitude towards music associated with the indie 'n' hip hop that owned the charts for the past few years, we're living in a time of po-faced pop.

You can't move for all the alter-egos, concept albums and over-styled pop caricatures. Every second-rate grime act and their dog now employ dark, minor rave synths and pendulous, epic basslines to signify that they're not just a rapper, they mean business. Every third-rate indie band and their ironically-named bulldog are choosing to make music both dreamy, arch and 'soaked in bells' or some such bullshit, where previously they would have made loud and boring guitar music about cups of tea. Every fourth-rate major label puppet has turned, in their hour of need, to a synth of some description, and spewed out a line of bollocks about what their song means, when it's fairly clear it means next to nothing.

Anyway Ke$ha doesn't seem to give a shit about all that stuff. She's just out to have a good time. And whether you can stomach her voice and her i Am DrUnK lyrics or not you've got to admit, at least she's not taking herself too seriously. There's also real promise on her debut LP. Behind all the adolescent partay posturing, there's a talented songwriter with a real ear for a hook and a chorus. Let's not forget that Madonna started off as just another blonde female popstar who made 'music for aerobics' (her own words, we think...) and dressed like she lived in a skip (albeit a very stylish one). We're not saying Ke$ha is the new Madonna, we're not saying that AT ALL, but she shows potential.

I guess what we're trying to get at is that Ke$ha has released a silly, fun pop album in a time of great pop seriousness and we just can't bring ourselves to feel above it. And neither should you. It feels good.