Katy Perry
Teenage Dream: Capitol Records
A strict Christian rearing and a sex-gripped attitude theoretically aren’t supposed to intermingle, but 25-year-old Katy Perry is the delightfully desirable lovechild of the two. Her newly released (and not to mention cotton candy scented) second album Teenage Dream is reason to be grateful that opposites sometimes do attract.
Staying true to her style of meshing the bold and the traditional, Perry remains a passenger on the pop mega-diva short bus – even if she is stuck in the middle row. Too normal to sit with the weirdos in the back (Lady Gaga, Ke$ha) and too bizarre to sit with the goodie-goodies in the front ( Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus).
Possessing a voice as recognizable as a skid-mark on a black pair of underwear, the homegrown California “Gurl” energizes her severely standard music with peppy-schoolgirl vigor (“Last Friday Night”). Perry’s songs are most addicting when she sticks to fast-paced, sex-premised assertions – the vaguely concealed “Peacock” fits right in with “I Kissed a Girl,” while the anti-Travis McCoy ballad “Circle the Drain” could use a faster tempo and a less sinister assertion (“Thought that I was the exception/ I could have rewrite your addiction/ you could’ve been the greatest/ But you’d rather get wasted”).
Perry’s infatuation with the happenings of the bed is put at a halt as Dream gets some momentum. “You don’t have to feel like a waste of space/ You’re original, cannot be replaced/ If you only knew what the future holds/ After a hurricane comes a rainbow,” goes one particularly uplifting line in the strong confidence building number “Firework” (even then it’s not strong enough to give someone the confidence needed to sleep with Russell Brand).
Radio hit-maker extrodanaire Dr. Luke creates gold with whatever he touches lately and his presence is felt this time around by teaming up with Perry for the second straight album. On “Teenage Dream,” the second single from Dream, the doc and his patient exploit the feel-good, no-worry experience of being a hot young thing with a flapping electric guitar and high level bass and drum on the chorus.
According to Rolling Stone, Perry has shared her disagreement with artists changing their styles after one album to keep it “creative.” In that spirit she has poured her sweat into an album that is pure pop, passion and sex. In attempting to keep Teenage Dream the same as One of the Boys, Perry has spawned a different piece of work. It is that idea that is making Dream Perry’s claim to fame, Perry’s dream.
Buy the album at our record store on Amazon
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