{"id":34763,"date":"2024-09-24T11:46:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T11:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shows4.com\/?p=34763"},"modified":"2024-09-24T11:56:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T11:56:46","slug":"katy-perry-struggles-to-reclaim-past-glory-on-the-flat-143-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shows4.com\/?p=34763","title":{"rendered":"Katy Perry Struggles to Reclaim Past Glory on the Flat \u2018143\u2019: Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
Following a breathless medley of hits at the MTV Video Music Awards last week, Katy Perry clutched her gold-plated Moon Person to accept the Video Vanguard trophy. \u201cThere are so many things that have to align to have a long and successful career as an artist. There are no decade-long accidents,\u201d she defiantly stated. \u201cOne of the biggest reasons I\u2019m standing here right now is because I learned how to block out all of the noise, that every single artist in this industry has to constantly fight against \u2014 especially women.\u201d She\u2019s right, in that she didn\u2019t stumble into success. But tuning out the world around her has had a slogging effect on her creative output, at least on her sixth album \u201c143,\u201d out today. In many ways, \u201c143\u201d was set up to fail in the wake of its very rocky rollout (more on that later). It arrives on the back of her quickly forgotten last album, 2020\u2019s \u201cSmile,\u201d a record released at the peak of the pandemic that slumped off the charts as soon as it was released (despite the spark of singles \u201cNever Really Over\u201d and \u201cHarleys in Hawaii\u201d). Perry felt not just out of lockstep with the times \u2014 by then, pop music had pivoted away from candy-striped bombast in favor of soul-baring confessionalism \u2014 but also with her own creative merits. Much of the spryness of some of her best work had evaporated; even the self-deprecation of Perry posing as a sad clown on the album cover felt forced.<\/p>\n

Effectively, \u201c143\u201d strips away the remnants of the perky personality that catapulted Perry into early 2010s superstardom. The album is flat, coasting on cascades of lyrical cliches and musical ideas that rarely crest. Across many of its 11 songs, Perry sounds disaffected and removed, as if she\u2019d just punched in between \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d tapings. Little of the clever wit that emboldened some of her biggest hits peeks out on the album, a disappointing slide away from the savvy she once so effortlessly exuded.\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
Related Videos<\/strong><\/div>\n