The former No. 1 pop star’s newest album claims it can provide a new era of dance music, but lacks needed substance.
There is hardly a college-aged student, nary a person alive, who has not heard the name Katy Perry. Since her hit “Hot N Cold” in 2008, Perry became more than a household name, but a household staple. Few members of Gen Z could not go more than a day in their childhoods without hearing one of her hits off of her 2011 chart-topping album “Teenage Dream.”
Since then, Perry’s fame and radio-plays have notoriously gone down. Deemed as her “flop era” by onlookers, Perry’s following albums, “Witness” (2017) and “Smile” (2020), chart-wise, collected less critical acclaim than her other works. However, her fanbase remained relatively loyal as both works were still praised if mentioned at all.
After that, Perry faded into a bit of a creative lull in her career. She took up a Vegas residency from late 2021 to late 2023, and notably starred on television’s “American Idol” as a celebrity judge. Her upcoming seventh album was widely discussed among fans awaiting its arrival.
Which brings us to today; in July, Perry dropped the single and music video for her newest album, “143”, titled “WOMAN’S WORLD” which quickly became a social media pariah. The song was subject to wide controversy, due to Perry’s collaboration with Dr. Luke, the man most currently known for being accused of sexual assault by singer and producer Kesha.
Disregarding-if at all possible-the hypocritical subject of the song, “WOMAN’S WORLD” is a bland, cash-grabbing attempt at a Barbie-esque “feminist” anthem that has no soul behind it — much like the album that accompanied it. “WOMAN’S WORLD” relies on drab, 2012, “women-can-do-it-too” mindsets that are so horribly behind on what current-wave feminism is doing. Its futile attempt at activism only asks one question: is it bad because an alleged assaulter helped write an intended girl power ballad, or because Perry herself is too removed from working-class oppression to comment on it meaningfully?
Nevertheless, the album persists. “WOMAN’S WORLD” is only the beginning of this empty dance album nightmare.
The other single, “I’M HIS, HE’S MINE”, featuring internet-famous rapper Doechii, comes just a little closer to finding something catchy. The song samples Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” and includes a not-awful verse on the rapper’s end, though the rest of the song has an empty TikTok-bait sound to it. What is particularly interesting about it is that Perry gets quite close to her own brand here; in the pre chorus, Perry tackles a more stereotypical “Katy Perry” tone. Her lyrics flow, her cliches are forgivable and there’s an ounce of emotion behind what she’s saying. Somehow, though, and deeply unfortunately, this is our only glance at it for the duration of the album.
For a self-proclaimed “dance album,” Perry’s assembly of songs refuses to dip into a noteworthy party sound. To make a common comparison, Charli xcx’s brat tackles emotion while emphasizing the club-bumping basses and exciting beats. By the time the trend hit Perry, the music sounds less like an iconic social media moment and more like a mom trying to fit in with the cool kids two months after the trend was over.
This is not to say that Perry isn’t capable of genuinely good music. Take any of her various No. 1 hits from the early 2010s, for example, or even some of her more recent sleeper singles, like “Harleys in Hawaii” or “Never Really Over”, which both were robbed of the flowers they were owed. These songs stray far enough from Perry’s comfort zone to be interesting, yet remain genuinely good – some of her best work, even. In both vocals and production, authentic emotion is shown and blossoms throughout these songs. Meanwhile, songs like “CRUSH” on this album sound hollow.
Most of these songs are not completely unsavable, for the record. “ALL THE LOVE” even teeters on genuinely good, and “WONDER” almost has something to say. These songs usually have a good beat that could mostly just benefit from some tweaking, though all of them could use some serious lyric reworking into something more heartfelt, rather than clichés and songwriting tropes. I’d love to see a song like “LIFETIMES” reworked into something with much better production to become a real club classic.
Katy Perry reaches for what is considered cool and trendy to the younger generation, but misses the soul that makes them cool in the first place. You cannot force irony or genre subversion just by saying that it is such. “143” feels like a last-ditch effort for validation from the teenagers of Twitter, but frankly, not everything needs to be for Gen Z, and not everything should be. Perry’s fans have grown up, but her music has not — in an attempt to stay relevant, she has sacrificed what made her music so good.
An album should never be half-finished or leave an audience feeling like they wasted their time. “143” manages to destroy a legacy and put a nail in a new one, solidifying Perry’s career as officially fizzled out.
Edited by Ava McCluer | amccluer@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Jackson Cooper and Emma Short | eshort@themaneater.com
Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com