After the massive success of Katy Perry’s last album, Teenage Dream, and her extremely public personal life being in the spotlight the past couple years, there was no way of telling what her next move would be in the music industry. On her newest release, Prism, she is the polar opposite of her previous “I Kissed a Girl,” “Firework” and “California Gurls” fun-loving, careless pop princess image. And though it was a respectable and courageous effort, I don’t see this side of Katy Perry being a huge success.
The album is dark, vulnerable and pretty much depressing after the fun, impactful, catchy feminine anthem “Roar” opens the record. Don’t get me wrong, her blatant calling out of Russell Brand’s text message break up on the lyrics of “Ghost” is fantastic (“You sent a text/It’s like the wind changed your mind”), but this track and the rest of the break-up ballads are just whiny and boring. Maybe it’s just me, but I expected a Katy Perry post-divorce album to be a little bit tougher and have an attitude.
Perry throws in some club hits in the first half of the album but the writing is really unimpressive. “Birthday” and “This is How We Do” have some of the least intelligent lyrics I’ve heard. It’s time for her to leave the lines like “This is how we do, yeah, chilling, laid back- Straight stuntin’ ya we do it like that” to Miley and recognize that she is going to be 30 years old pretty soon and can’t act like a post-pubescent teenager forever. Speaking of which, for some reason when I listen to “International Smile,” a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie cover pops up in my head. It’s especially confusing when they’re compared to the super mature tracks like “Love Me” and “By the Grace of God,” which stand out awkwardly as beautiful stripped-down pieces among her lackluster attempt at being happy and lively again. Her collaboration with Juicy J in “Dark Horse” was a smart move and will most definitely be one of the more popular tracks on the album. The production of the upbeat songs are great and they will no doubt get played on the radio and in the clubs. I just don’t see any of these going down as pop classics.
Rating: C+
