New album "143"

Katy Perry: musical gut punch with an announcement

Stuck in the past in the eternal search for love: Katy Perry on her new album "143".

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Capitol, Aidan Cullen)

Four years after the mediocre "Smile", 2010 pop queen Katy Perry returns to the limelight with her sixth album "143". The 39-year-old clings so tightly to her throne that she completely forgets the times we live in today.

Katy Perry already had the proverbial "scissors" on two months ago. At the beginning of July, she put her comeback, which had already been launched via social media platforms, into action with the release of her first single. What in theory sounds like a topical ode to feminism with the title "Woman's World" and gave the 39-year-old the opportunity to make a hit-heavy statement about the current times, in practice turned into a veritable gut-punch. In the accompanying video, Perry stalks through a dystopian world lightly clothed, pretends to be a defenseless doll and even sticks a fuel hose up her ass (yes, really!). It was all exaggerated and satirical, the artist announced in response to initial shocked feedback in interviews, but the message didn't really hit home. Of course, you don't have to take it all too seriously, but even satire can do more in 2024 than just serve up clichés.

The scratches have remained
But then it wasn't just the visual presentation that caused a stir. After the mediocre "Smile" (2020), which was also lost in the public eye at the height of the pandemic, Perry got involved again with Dr. Luke, who wrote more than half of the new album for her. He was once responsible for the biggest hits of her lush 2010s, but then ended up in a years-long assault lawsuit with Kesha, which has since been settled but had a serious impact on both their lives. Although Kesha is now making and releasing music again, she has completely lost the career momentum she had a good ten years ago. Dr. Luke himself couldn't get out of Causa without a scratch in the enlightened and, after #MeToo, completely changed present. Perry had to reckon with the fact that she couldn't expect any cheers from the public for her collaboration with him.

Now the album "143", which was kept top secret by the record company for a long time, is available in its full glory and definitely does not provide the hoped-for turnaround in the direction of positivity. Their eleven new songs cross the finish line in just over half an hour - but it feels like you're listening to the often very half-baked songs for much longer. The beats are from the boring nostalgia canned goods, the sound structures seem outdated and outmoded and Perry tends to "overact" with her openly displayed top motivation, which ultimately fits in well with the overall picture, but doesn't have a particularly positive effect either. The listener is laboriously shuffled from one Eurotrash sound to the next and doesn't even know where to begin to wonder.

Tagada anthems for the Prater
Perry was obviously inspired by good vibes, dance tracks and her irrepressible belief in love. She never misses an opportunity to flaunt her love for Orlando Bloom in public and tries to project this innocent form of a Disney existence into her music. This sometimes leads to more than strange exorcisms. "Crush", for example, is at best suitable as a summery tagada anthem in the Vienna Prater, in the choruses Perry actually dares to yodel over it. "All The Love" is driven by a 2000s David Guetta beat and literally wallows in its transience, while a song like "Truth" wouldn't even end up on the B-sides for an artist like Ava Max. Due to her penchant for dance tracks, Perry could most easily be compared to Dua Lipa, but with "Future Nostalgia" (2020) and "Radical Optimism" (2024), she has released albums that uncompromisingly expose Perry's compositional aimlessness.

In a female pop age in which Taylor Swift is indirectly helping to decide elections, Charli XCX is founding a global movement with "Brat", Chappell Roan is revolutionizing the mainstream pop world and Sabrina Carpenter is conquering the charts as a kind of new innocent Miley Cyrus, it takes a lot more than a few warmed-up disco beats from the 2000s and a lot of naked skin, which serves not as a feminist statement but to heighten the effect, because the music alone is no longer nearly enough. Unsurprisingly, Perry has her best moments when she shares the stage with the younger generation. "Gimme Gimme" with 21 Savage, "Gorgeous" with Kim Petras and "Artificial" with JID are some of the best things to stumble out of the faltering creative well. Schmalhans is the master chef here.

Stumbling over naivety
Behind the ominous number combination of the album title lies innocently meant esotericism. "143" is simply Perry's angel number, which has appeared in various private situations in the recent past and has left its mark on the artist. The older generation among the readers may also remember that 143 once stood for "I love you" on pagers - the fact that these outdated instruments of technology are more likely to be associated with Hezbollah these days is of course not the American's fault. Ultimately, Katy Perry probably fails because of her own naivety or because of her overconfidence in trying to squeeze an obsolete sound with obsolete messages into the corset of modern times through the sheer size of her personality. Actually, "143" is an all-encompassing gut punch with a run-up - but as is so often the case, the creators overlook this in their optimistic tunnel vision.