Katy Perry apparently loves to perform music, but she doesn’t seem to be much of a listener. Since Max Martin and Dr. Luke first introduced her to the public with “I Kissed a Girl” in 2008, she hasn’t shown much curiosity about different genres or sounds. After six albums, it’s fair to say that she doesn’t find dissonance the least bit appealing, and she’s never been one to be seduced by rough edges. Each release, including the new album, is a testament to her keen listening skills. 143look for exactly the same shine.
All that shine gets dull after a while, and 143 It's so lacking in fresh ideas and human touches that it accidentally slips into the Uncanny Valley of AI – even if there weren't any AI involved, it gives you the same sick feeling in your stomach. 143 It's a soulless, mercenary adventure that raises many questions. Here are the mysteries we still have about Katy Perry's new album 143.
Why Dr. Luke?
Perry's 2010 album Teenage dream is one of the most playful pop albums of this millennium. This is largely due to Max Martin and his stable of melody writers, including his most famous protégé, Łukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald. Martin practically invented the modern songwriting factory, and for long stretches was the main pen for the Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, and Britney Spears. He also helped engineer Taylor Swift’s pop turn, co-writing snippets of Red and executive producer 1989 With the help of another protégé, Shellback, Swift's experience with the Martin model is instructive.
Like Perry, Taylor Swift used Martin's equipment to create some masterful creations. But during the Reputation Swift seems to have decided the group was pretty much over (hey, three decades is a terrible career) and dumped them for Jack Antonoff. Perry didn't take notice, and has worked with at least one of Martin, Dr. Luke, and Shellback on each of her six albums, with increasingly diminishing results. Kesha's abuse allegations against Dr. Luke didn't phase her; 143 It is produced by Gottwald.
For 143 Dr. Luke licks some crumbs off Lady Gaga's chocolate. table and borrow some of Beyoncé's palette for Renaissance — The first one, inspired by the house, no COWBOY CARTER — And other beats are familiar too, maybe like that minor Calvin Harris song, you know, with the singer whose name you can't remember. At this point, familiarity is Dr. Luke's trademark, as evidenced by all the lawsuits that he has accumulated over the years claiming copyright infringement. You hire this doctor to make a hit by any means necessary. And even with all his baggage, he's not earning that paycheck; no single from 143 It even made the Top 40. That's medical malpractice.
Why bother with “WOMAN'S WORLD”?
Briefly and in order, the main ideas expressed by Katy Perry in each song of 143:
Feminism
Fever
Fever
Jealousy
Love
Love
Love
Fever
Fever
Jealousy
Love
It's not that any of these ideas are out of place on a pop album, it's just that one of them didn't get any support. “WOMAN'S WORLD” sounded half-baked at the time it came out, and the rest 143 She proved it. Katy Perry doesn't stay up all night thinking about the obstacles women face; even on an album that opens with “WOMAN'S WORLD,” the thought barely registers.
Speaking of topics, that brings us to the next question.
Where is 4?
“143” has meant “I love you” at least since the days of Mr. Roger's neighborhood, when Mister Roger used it to represent the letters of each word in the phrase: 1, 4, 3, “I love you.” Katy Perry 143 In 4, the interest is a bit lacking. Early on, Perry and his collaborators explore urgent physical attraction, the kind that seeks out motels with hourly rates. There’s also a “CRUSH,” a bit about soulmates (“LIFETIMES”) and, later and even more briefly, his relationship with his daughter (“WONDER”).
Panting with excitement is a time-honored pop tradition, but the title seems a little shallow at the beginning. Plus, Perry's platitudes about love are almost offensively vague.“Feeling all the butterflies/living in a sweet dream,” she sings on “CRUSH,” and don’t try to do that at an open mic or you’ll get kicked off the stage. She and her co-writers simply don’t have much to say about love.
It's not that 143 It's a bad title; it's nice in the abstract but has no bearing on the product. It adds nothing to the listening experience and might as well be random numbers.
Speaking of…
Does Perry believe words have meaning or are they just clever sounds?
Because some of these lyrics are hard to understand, and she's the one who has to sing them. On “LIFETIMES” she seems to claim that her and her partner's love is permanent, “Like the sun is always rising/Like the stars are in the sky,” and it's like, eh, you know the sun isn't always increasing, right?
But his most common lyrics are vaguely cool nonsense. On “GIMME GIMME,” he sings:
All my girls show up regularly (Yeah, yeah)
Pick your poison, baby, take a bite
If you want my cell phone digits (Yeah, yeah)
You have to spend it all on me tonight.
34 words, a surprising amount of clichés and not a single new idea. Well, at least here he tries; on “CRUSH” he shrugs off “emotions I can’t describe.”
What is Perry really “ASKING” about?
Because it’s not expressed in “WONDER,” the closing track that doesn’t quite live up to its emotional potential. Perry’s four-year-old daughter Daisy opens the song with the chorus, “One day when we’re older, will we still look up in wonder?” It’s an interesting moment, mother and daughter looking up at the sky and being moved by the beautiful and unexpected. Perry then takes over, and again, the lack of specificity in the lyrics lets her down. Here’s the full chorus:
One day, when we are older
Will we continue to look at him in wonder?
Someday, when we are wiser
Will our hearts still have that fire?
Can anyone promise me?
Isn't our innocence lost in this cynical world?
One day, when we are older
Will we continue to look at him in wonder?
Is this a mother talking to her daughter, or a daughter talking to her mother? “Someday, when we’re wiser, will our hearts still have that fire?” They sound like a pair of students, young enough not to feel cynical, but old enough to know that cynicism is coming. You might think that Daisy and Katy are just voicing the characters, but then why include Daisy’s voice in this song, compared to all the others? The tone of the words is so strange that it banishes that warm initial image.
Plus, at this point in the 33-minute runtime, it’s hard not to want a little more. Perry, Dr. Luke, and the rest of the collaborators have spent the entire album aiming solely for big emotions, asking the listener to go there and feel something for themselves. So you and your child are looking up, whatever the circumstances. What are you looking at? Is it a bird? A satellite? A cloud that looks like a dog? Maybe if he told us, we could feel some of that wonder.
Daisy returns to close the song, her voice is the last thing we hear. 143. You might think “WONDER” would stand out in Perry’s discography, the only song featuring a four-year-old’s voice. But they’ve applied so much autotune to Daisy’s voice that you almost expect her to drawl, “I’m T-Pain, you know me.” She doesn’t actually sound like a human child. Perry finally made something new, and then flattened it into another brilliant nothing.
thanks to our partners at consequence.net
