Famous for her peppermint swirl dresses and candy-coated pop, Katy Perry was a breath of fresh air when she first swept onto the music scene with 2008’s breakthrough single I Kissed A Girl and a debut album, One Of The Boys, bursting with verve and personality.
But the Californian’s momentum has stalled of late, and the countdown to 143, her first album in four years, has been far from smooth.
The three singles released up front have all flopped spectacularly, with none even making the UK Top 40, while Perry sparked an environmental controversy when her video producers were investigated for filming promotional material, allegedly without proper authorisation, on the protected sand dunes of S’Espalmador in the Balearic Islands.
Her summer comeback single Woman’s World was widely panned, as was her decision to resume her creative partnership with one of her original collaborators Lukasz Gottwald (aka Dr. Luke), a producer who was accused of Sєxual, physical and emotional abuse by the singer Kesha. Gottwald, who denied any wrongdoing, countersued Kesha for defamation and a long-running lawsuit was finally settled out of court last year.
Perry reᴀsserted her pop credentials with a powerful performance at this month’s Video Music Awards in New York, revisiting classic hits such as Firework — but a return to the fray that should have soared like a mini-rocket has so far proved a damp squib.
Despite all that, 143 manages to avoid being an unmitigated disaster. Named after Perry’s ‘angel number’ (the numerical shorthand for I Love You), it has its moments. There are some pᴀssable, if dated, dance numbers plus two touching songs inspired by her four-year-old daughter Daisy and the latter’s dad, Hollywood star Orlando Bloom.
The first of these, Lifetimes, is an ebullient, house-style banger. The second, Wonder, provides the album with its show-stopping, theatrical finale, one in which Daisy has a fleeting cameo. ‘Stay pure, beautiful girl,’ sings Perry.
Elsewhere, however, the 39-year-old singer chases trends without any real conviction or sense of fun. On the slinky Gimme Gimme and Crush, her voice is annoyingly coated in auto-tune, while the revenge song I’m His, He’s Mine contains an incongruous sample from Crystal Waters’s Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless), a 1991 single about a desтιтute busker.
The Perry of old emerges only in flashes. All The Love, which starts as an electronic ballad before the pace quickens, allows her to finally open up her voice.
But much of 143 feels generic and laboured, its failings thrown into sharper relief by the rise of a new wave of wittily inventive, less calculating pop goddesses. Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and others have upped the ante. In contrast, this is devoid of the simple musical pleasures that once made Katy so captivating.
