Empty calories might not provide anything sustainable, but they sure do taste good. The same can be said for sugary music: it’s simply ear candy, but we wouldn’t listen if we didn’t like it.
Katy Perry plays that card again on “Teenage Dream,” her second record. The album that’s spawned the feel-good summertime hit “California Gurls” starts with the title track, which is just as catchy but with a wistful touch. “Let you put your hands on me/ In my skin-tight jeans/ Be your teenage dream tonight,” Perry, 25, sings over pulsating synthesizers and guitars. “Last Friday Night (TGIF)” details the aftermath of a big night, some of it youthful harmlessness, like a skinny dip, some of it a little more serious, like a threesome. Perry gets bonus points for rhyming “my favorite party dress” with “warrants out for my arrest,” and she has no regrets: “Pictures of last night ended up online I’m screwed, oh well/ It’s a blacked-out blur but I’m pretty sure it ruled.”
“Circle the Drain” is one of “Teenage Dream’s” more compelling songs. There are big guitar riffs and drums to start, before Perry swears off a dependant and undependable love interest: “You fall asleep during foreplay/ ’Cause the pills you take, are more your forte/ I’m not sticking around to watch you go down/ Wanna be your lover, not your f----ng mother.” Considering her fiance is the notorious hedonist Russell Brand, she might be singing from experience.
Perry gets reminiscent on “The One That Got Away,” and the choruses are very much in the mold of a Kelly Clarkson power ballad. Perry lacks the sheer vocal abilities of Clarkson — that’s apparent when she pushes the borders of her range on songs like “Who Am I Living For?” — but it’s not an issue, because the expression is there. She also writes most of her material, so there’s a deep connection to the songs that is sometimes nonexistent in the Top 40 pop world.
While Perry peer Lady Gaga shoots for performance art, Perry has made no such lofty proclamations. Its bubblegum pop, with no challenges made to open your mind or intentions to send a message, and that frees the music from getting bogged down in art-pop pretensions. Whether or not people will be listening to “Teenage Dream” in 10 years or Perry will be able to keep listeners’ attention with this particular brand of pop music is up for debate. But debating would take out the fun.
Rating: W W W W
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