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Something revolutionary happens on Katy Perry’s new album 143; she uses irony. She includes the song “ARTIFICIAL (ft. JID),” two minutes and 45 seconds of bemoaning how fake and — who would have guessed? — artificial this imaginary narrator is. Yet the whole album is 34 minutes of the most disingenuous, shallow pandering that has ever been released into the world of pop music.
The opening track, “WOMAN’S WORLD,” attempts to be an anthem for modern-day feminism, inverting the discouraging phrase “it’s a man’s world” by replacing “man” with “woman.” Yet this change, along with the rest of the chorus and the verses, is merely a gesture. Perry doesn’t add anything meaningful: She simply conveys, “Go Women!” again and again. In a world where musicians share nuanced and unique takes on the feminine experience, Perry panders — trying to make a quick buck off of an important movement. The backing track is a generic beat with an uplifting melody. The lyrics are a highlight compared to the rest of the album, but that’s not saying much.
Immediately after “WOMAN’S WORLD” is “GIMME GIMME (ft. 21 Savage).” In this weird character piece, Perry plays the dominating woman who forces men to do what she wants as, in her words, “If you want my body, gotta blow my mind.” 21 Savage plays one of the men Katy Perry is leading around. It’s like they chose him at random with no care if he fit the role, he is so far from the character he plays. Lines like “Big dog Savage, I’m the man of your dreams (21)” and “I’m like Amazon ’cause I got what you need (21)” make one wonder how much he is getting paid. Out-of-place ad-libs, an obnoxious beat and suggestive lyrics make “GIMME GIMME” sleazy — a quality that would have been fun to explore if Perry hadn’t pitch-corrected into normality.
Katy Perry is a massive fan of pointless autotune. “I’M HIS, HE’S MINE (ft. Doechii)” asks what happens when you combine a brash chorus, the classic techno sample “la-dad-dee, la-da-da” and once again, an overuse of autotune. The answer is like an off-brand Lego set: Nothing fits and everything’s weirdly plastic. It’s a flagrantly boring listen. “CRUSH,” the song immediately after, feels like a mistake, using an almost identical vocal refrain “la-da-da-dee/la-da-dee.” It’s as if Perry realized her homogeneity, and wanted to get ahead of critics by shoving the similarities in listeners’ faces. And in case those listeners forgot the awful effects of autotune, Perry closes the album by autotuning a little girl’s voice. “WONDER” feels reminiscent of Avicii’s “The Nights,” both in theme and in general song structure. Both tracks are about making the most of youth, featuring uplifting production. Yet Perry makes it so much worse, with a cheesy beat, stock lyrics and horrible autotuning of that little girl’s voice. One can only hope a majority of this album’s profits will go toward her therapy when she is older.
The highlights of this album come from breaking away from the autotune: when Perry either turns in a new direction or says something meaningful underneath a false veneer. “LIFETIMES” is a simple dance track with a neon beat and lyrics on loop — though nothing about it is artistically inspiring, it does not need to be. There is room to breathe between Perry’s voice and the “perfect pitch.” “ALL THE LOVE” is another dance-ier song. While airy synths surround a pulsing drum beat, Perry’s vocals, shining through the heavy autotune, craft the second verse into a soaring melody. After a creative, seamless transition to the next song, “NIRVANA,” the listener is met with a slightly darker, more electronic tone, yet a similar synthy dance vibe. Perry sings in the chorus, “Dancing in the blurry lights (blurry lights) / found you in paradise (paradise) / floating in the diamond sky (diamond sky) / our bodies synchronize.” It has a lot of potential if only Perry had made it a little less generic, but it works well as a vocal break from the dancey beat. Throughout the album, Perry uses small vocal embellishments to showcase her skill, which turns out to be the best part of the album. But in the end, they are forgotten in the blandness.
Perry’s lackluster performance prostrates her artistic integrity, leaving only regretful realizations for lifelong fans.
Daily Arts Contributor Joseph Bogdan can be reached at joebogdn@umich.edu.
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