Ke$ha’s debut album Animal is now available to Spotify Premium users ahead of it’s UK release next week. Ke$ha hit the charts last year, first appearing on Flo Rida’s Right Round (the second most-listened to track on Spotify in 2009), and then with her break through hit Tik Tok. Animal has already hit number one in the US.

22-year-old Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Determined to make it in music, she quit high school at 17 and moved back to LA, befriending the likes of Katy Perry and Max Martin, making ends meet by working as a waitress, and living in the infamous seven-bedroom mansion where The Eagles wrote Hotel California.

Writing songs for the likes of The Veronicas, Ke$ha also appeared in Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl video, sang backing vocals on Britney Spears’ Lace and Leather, and, erm, vomited in Paris Hilton’s wardrobe. That particular episode is recounted in the song Party at a Rich Dude’s House on Animal, which also features songs about backstabbing friends, boyfriends running off with other female popstars, and the merits of male drag acts. As The Guardian said of Ke$ha, “Meet the degenerate Hannah Montana.”

But is Ke$ha’s trashy pop chic all image and no substance? Does she really stumble home every night to the Hotel California and brush her teeth with Jack Daniels? Or is she a clued-up industry veteran cynically creating an interesting image? Your enjoyment of Animal is likely to depend on your tolerance for the Autotune sound that is evident throughout. Can Ke$ha be this year’s Lady Gaga? You decide.

Listen on Spotify
Download/CD at Amazon