Katy Perry - Witness

Katy Perry
Witness
2017
Spotify

There has been quite a bit made about this album because on the media tour Katy Perry kept harping on describing this as a "woke" pop album. The lead up felt like a joke, or irony or something else but not a real thing. A nonsensical appearance on SNL sealed the confusion yet here we have Perry's fourth major label release: Witness. The "Purposeful Pop" Perry described as her goal is laughable at best with most of the tracks siding somewhere near base level empowerment. The first thing that sticks out is the lyrics, they are so fucking cringe. A song does not go by without Perry singing a lyric that makes you simply scratch your head. "Roulette" outlines a relationship with, you guessed it, the table game as the basis. Fear not however, she also talks about "dropping a pin", "rolling the dice" ect. ect. just in case one metaphor was not enough for you in one song. The big revel in the bridge is that this game of "Roulette" was actually Russian Roulette. Yep, I know. The dance beats used on this record are quite fresh at times, but at others feel just dated enough to not be interesting. The actual music on the album could have worked three years ago, but coupled with these lyrics no way. "Swish Swish" which is supposed to be Perry's big clapback against constant rival Taylor Swift is so vague that you can barely tell it is a diss track at all. If Perry wants to continue this inane feud at least release a track that makes Swift look silly instead of yourself.

While Katy Perry's visuals have always been central to her, with Teenage Dream and One of the Boys she felt like she had her own voice, this time around feels like she is just looking at Lady Gaga and saying "yeah that". The production is not crisp either, especially on songs like "Power" which should be the biggest banger on the record. Perry's lyrics fall just short of pandering, but the beat also is just confusing and misguided. Perry's music is usually so vibrant but Witness is flat from moment one. Yet all would be forgiven if there were just some good hooks, something to sing along to but she fails to even meet that level. "Miss You More" is the one good track on the record, a piano ballad which Perry is able to really build into this soaring electronic tune and it makes sense when you learn it was written by the canadian duo Purity Ring. "I missed than I loved you" is a lyric that plays with the idea of time then the track has this almost lighting crack as Perry zaps from verse to chorus. It is what this album likely should have been, but never had a chance to be. Witness fails both conceptually and in practice because it always feels like it is chasing something without really grasping what it truly is. This record is just not really good at all.

3.0 out of 10