How do you approach a Katy Perry album? With dread, fearing that you're about to be subjected to 55 minutes of asinine lyrics, bored production and off-key vocals? Or with excitement, hoping that although Perry's debut, One of the Boys, was a dud that she will surprise with an album of catchy tunes that make for 2010's greatest guilty pleasure? The problem with the first option is that it is closed-minded, and you never want to approach any type of music with a predetermined opinion. But the problem with the second option is that you will walk away from Teenage Dream, Perry's latest album, disappointed and thinking about what could have been.
The first single, "California Gurls," quickly dominated airwaves and playlists after its premiere in early May, and for good reason. "Gurls" is a breezy, carefree romp with a comical guest rap from none other than Snoop Dogg and sounds effortlessly fun. This feeling doesn't last throughout Dream, and the listener suffers due to the major label politics that demand the album go down a checklist of necessities.
There's the obvious party song "Last Friday Night" which awkwardly shoehorns a saxophone solo into the middle eight; the break-up song "Circle the Drain" that tries too hard to rock; and worst of all, the gimmick of all gimmicks, "Peacock," which has a refrain that may in fact redefine what we as society consider immaturity. It's not that all of these are songs are plain bad - although, they might be - the problem is we've heard them all before.
Where the album excels is when it is allowed to breathe and just let pop music be pop music. This is never more apparent than on "The One That Got Away", which although initially not striking, pedals along with surprising strength and a vocal performance from Perry where she sounds invested in the music, not the paycheck she might get when it turns into a hit. On "Firework," Perry tackles a big hands-in-the-air trance production courtesy of super producers Stargate - who have also done work for Beyonc
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
