Katy Perry's latest album "Prism" debuted at No. 1 on the charts should be a surprise to no one. But why it's there is a little more difficult to untangle. Critical response to the venture, the follow up to her massively successful second album "Teenage Dream," ranged from lukewarm to unimpressed, or worse.
But even before the reviews were in, its first single "Roar" hinted that the three years Perry spent working on the album hadn't truly paid off. The song, seemingly written with a high school volleyball game warm up in mind, is everywhere, sure. But despite its ubiquity, "Roar" pales in comparison to the catchiness of the hit-single-after-single that "Teenage Dream" delivered. Furthermore her VMA performance of the "Roar" – a boxing match charade that spared no visual metaphors for the song's "Rocky"-esque themes – was overshadowed by Miley Cyrus's twerk-pocalypse. As for the rest of the album, Perry promised darker, rawer "a prism" to her soul. Sonically, it's as overproduced as ever.
Just as she has lived up to performative expectations, Perry has been willing to adhere to the rules when it comes to her personal life as well. She hasn't been shy rehashing in glossy magazines the details her romances and heartaches. Her tales of her marriage and divorce to crass comedian Russell Brand, and her current relationship with Mayer have maintained her presence in the tabloids. And these revelations don't just keep the media wheel spinning. They add speculation and interest to otherwise horribly generic songs. "Legendary Lovers" or "Love Me" could be about any romance or heartbreak, respectively. But with Perry's tongue-wagging we can speculate that they're inspired by Mayer and Brand, giving them a suggestion of intimacy that doesn't actually exist.
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