She had her heart broken, she grew up a bit, and she matured her artistic viewpoint just a tick north of the darker second half of 2013’s Prism. If you metabolize the words and themes of Witness, you realize what she actually meant by “purposeful.” For what feels like the first time, she poured her heart out across an entire album and into songs of personal liberation and exploration. By that metric, Teenage Dream, the career-defining history maker the public holds as her gold standard, is the Quinn to its Daria. Still, even with the differing musical sensibilities spread around the record, Witness listens like a cohesive concept album instead of a collection of potential singles. (For starters, she threw back on the vibrantly colored wigs for the Prism era after declaring that persona dead.) It would be uncharacteristic and, honestly, unwarranted of her to release 15 pop songs tackling the current social climate, don’t you think?įor her first post-election expression, Perry branched out of her Max Martin comfort zone for a handful of tracks, and the evolution toward less formulaic radio-ready songwriting is apparent. She’s not the type to fully commit to one particular theme either. We should know by now that Katy Perry doesn’t do the same thing twice, whether it’s on stage or in song. Not every performance can or should feature “persist” armbands and projections of the Declaration of Independence. Mind you, purposeful and political are not the same word. While launching the first single, the socially conscious “Chained to the Rhythm,” at the 2017 Grammy Awards, Perry offered a hint about the then-unnamed album, calling it “purposeful pop.” Given the themes of “Chained,” people conflated that with Perry ditching the double entendres and party-ready puns for political bops. 1 single to her impressive streak and floundered in its attempt to repeat the mainstream success of its platinum predecessors. A year removed from the impossible expectations that bogged it down, Witness rises above the commercial and critical disappointment that eclipsed its merit. After Witness came out, the superstar grappled with her first bout of chart struggles when the album didn’t add another No. That bold question opens the title track of Katy Perry’s fourth studio album Witness, released a year ago on June 9, 2017. “If I lost it all today, would you stay?” By Reed Gaudens 5 years ago It’s been one year since Katy Perry released her polarizing opus of “purposeful pop.” Although ‘Witness’ missed the mainstream, it’s a misunderstood masterpiece primed for delayed impact.
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