Katy Perry - WITNESS | Album Review

Katy Perry: WITNESS

Katy Perry released her fourth album as a pop artist, Witness, on June 9th. The album features hit song "Chained to the Rhythm", as well as "Bon Appetit", and "Swish Swish". The long awaited album follows Perry's largely successful 2013 album PRISM.

The album is a weird combination of old Katy Perry, 80s Dance, and 90s Hip-Hop. The hodge-podge of an album makes little sense, and is an overall very messy album.

I have two huge problems with the album, one, being the fact that the album seems like it isn't meant to be listened to straight through, the order of the tracks makes little sense, none of them follow, the tempo changes from song to song, and lyrical concepts are even more all over the place. My second issue, Perry painted this album as "purposeful pop", with politically driven music, however after listening to the album all the way through a few times, there are only two songs that are blatantly political, one being a single, and maybe two others being borderline political. Perry's era of "purposeful pop" seems to be the farthest from putting out music with purpose she has ever been.

The album only has about five songs that are single material, two of which have been released, both of which didn't do well on radio, and the other three wouldn't likely perform much better. All of that being said, there, in my opinion, is only one bad song, and that is "Bon Appetit", I am a huge fan of Katy Perry, and I've never called a song bad, but this song is pretty bad. "Hey Hey Hey" is more than likely gonna be a single, being one of the few that could fit the radio, I personally am not a huge fan of the song, it's a great song, just not my cup of tea. "Roulette", once again not bad but not my favorite, feels very much like 2009 Rihanna demo.

One of the best tracks on the album "Swish Swish", which in all honesty was saved by the Nicki Minaj verse, is the song that has the most radio potential, and is a very summery dance track, and could very well have a successful chart run. "Deja Vu", ironically sounds a lot like "Swish Swish", but one again a decent track. The best song on the first half of the album "Power, written by Jack Garratt, is the first slow song on the album, but quickly picks up into a dance-esque chorus. The song is standout from the album, and attempts to discuss taking back power, rather that be in the world, or in your personal life.

"Chained to the Rhythm" is by far the most Katy Perry-esque pop track on the album, and definitely was the right choice for the lead single. The very political track remains one of my favorites and will probably become the biggest track from the album. "Bigger Than Me", a track I expected to be a slow song, turns out to be one of the most upbeat tracks from the album, and is one of the few that have radio potential, this song specifically could be remixed easily into a dance hall track.

The last three songs on the album are by far the best tracks, "Save as Draft" is one of the most literal pop songs ever, where she literally sings about saving an email or tweet as draft. The slow track that is clearly about former boyfriend John Mayer, even takes digs at him, singing "you don't have to sub-tweet me / my number's always been the same". "Pendulum" is my favorite track from the album, when I heard a snippet of the track on Perry's Instagram, I knew I would. The track picks the pace of the album back up for one of the most pure pop songs on the album, with an easy-to-follow lyrical concept, perfect for radio. The final track from the album "Into Me You See" is the only real complete ballad on the album, and it takes on a new concept for the artist, intimacy. The track pretty much praises her for becoming more intimate, and accepting intimacy.

Overall, Witness is a good pop album, I personally expected a lot more. I will definitely be listening to some of the songs very frequently.

#KatyPerry #Witness #NickiMinaj #SkipMarley #Migos #TaylorSwift