Katy Perry has definitely made “California Gurls” the summer anthem of 2010, no doubt about it. Another track off her album, “Last Friday Night,” will surely be the future anthem for any girls night out. She has so far released four singles out of the 12 tracks of her album Teenage Dream, which kind of ruins the album’s feel. The charisma of Katy Perry seemed to be never ending with her own musical abilities. Not many girls in the pop industry will run around stage energetically with a guitar for a few songs and write their own lyrics. Instead most of her songs were written by Christopher Stewart, who wrote for Justin Bieber. It is a disappointment to know that Katy Perry did not write or even co-write any of the songs on this album that matched her own vibrant personality.
Perry seemed to venture off from her work ethic while preparing her album. One would feel as if she did not perform this album as well because it was not of her own creativity.
Teenage Dream was ruined mainly due to most of her songs being overpowered with an ’80s feel. This was mainly caused by synthesizers and sound effects that were overused frequently throughout the album. The mood of “Circle the Drain” feels exactly like Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55,” if he were a girl ranting about being disappointed with a terrible relationship.
Almost all of the slow-paced songs throughout the album were not the best, but her significant vocal abilities seemed to help carry the dragging songs. Each soft song seemed to be unfinished due to the quaint emptiness in the song.
Sadly, I must admit none of the slow songs even begin to compare to “Thinking of You.” Her vocal abilities proved to mirror a plethora of artist’s abilities from the ’80s like Annie Lennox’s soft voice and Toni Basil’s cheerleader enthusiasm.
Perry’s lyrics gave off the effect of Madonna during the ’80s era was to appear 25 years later. “Put your hands on me, in my skin tight jeans,” the scandalous lyrics of the featured track “Teenage Dream” was pretty mild compared to the explicit material on the majority of her tracks.
In general, most of the lyrics felt unoriginal with cliches numerous artists before had used such subjects as metaphors.
At times, the music seemed buffered where I could barely hear the lyrics. The only other song I can see Katy Perry releasing and at least getting good airplay on the radio is the reminiscent song “The One that Got Away.” The simple beat just draws you in.
Toward the end of the album, it seemed as if it would get old really quickly because most of the songs sounded similar. Many could lose interest in the album since most of the songs have the same beats as numerous other pop songs.
For decades to come, I can not see people viewing this album as innovative towards the future of music. If the ’80s effect was taken away and Perry used her own musical abilities, the album would have probably been a whole lot better.
Talent is in Katy Perry, she just did not use it.