Album review
‘Witness’ not Katy Perry’s best
Pity Katy Perry. Well, not too much. Her popularity and income tax bracket won’t diminish anytime soon.
But for all her efforts to hype up “Witness,” her first album in four years, Perry has faced a series of setbacks.
Her self-proclaimed entry into “purposeful pop,” lead single “Chained to the Rhythm,” rapidly tumbled down the Billboard Hot 100. Hip-hop-influenced follow-up singles “Bon Appétit” and “Swish Swish” peaked at No. 59 and No. 46, respectively, low by her standards.
She was upstaged on the “Saturday Night Live” finale by the dancing “Backpack Kid,” then mocked for her own square dancing during “Appétit” alongside Migos. Then on Friday, when “Witness” dropped, Perry’s pop star rival Taylor Swift made the surprise announcement that her full catalog would return to all streaming services, effectively stealing Perry’s thunder.
None of this would matter, of course, so long as Perry’s new music was good, but “Witness” is the weakest album of Perry’s career. It’s a messy, often joyless collection of songs void of Perry’s signature personality.
“Chained to the Rhythm,” with its unshakeable disco-goes-dancehall beat, remains the album standout. Its lyrics are vague and superficial by protest song standards, but still more profound than your average radio bait.
Other “purposeful pop” songs sag, saddled with clunky lines. “If I’m not evolving, I’m just a robot taking up oxygen,” Perry sings on “Bigger Than Me.” Never mind the fact that robots don’t breathe, the lyric doesn’t possess the emotional heft to make this pop purposeful, nor does it work as an anthemic rallying cry.
The admirable “Hey Hey Hey” has some standout lines, with Perry likening herself to “Marilyn Monroe in a monster truck,” but it’s still absent the sort of memorable hooks that made Perry’s “Roar” so empowering.
Instead “Hey Hey Hey,” like most of the songs on “Witness,” follows the chilled-out bedroom pop aesthetic that’s so hot right now. Aside from the troubled fact that one of pop’s biggest stars is playing copycat, the formula doesn’t play to Perry’s strengths. Her vocals, so often the colorful centerpiece of her songs, are often subdued here, and consistently overwhelmed by dire production.
Perry and her songwriting and production team (top talents Max Martin, Shellback and Jack Garratt among them) don’t have complete faith in the “less is more” bedroom pop formula, cluttering the effective sparseness with too many electronic layers.
The bright, gospel-pop jam “Pendulum” is a welcome exception, and the album’s best
shot, aside from “Rhythm,” of becoming an enduring signature.
“Life’s a pendulum/It all comes back around,” Perry sings optimistically on the chorus. We’ll have to wait and see if she comes back around to making monster hits again.