Katy Perry - Prism

I've always had a soft spot for Katy Perry. Her voice is silky smooth and her music is infectiously catchy. However, after looking back at Teenage Dream, I started to become less enamored with her because of her provocative lyrics. You see, I am very impressed when pop singers can break the mold of sex-filled lyrics and create wonderful music. At long last, I can add Katy Perry to that very small group. Does she still write about sex on Prism? Yes, but it is much more diminished and subtle than Teenage Dream was. Thematically, it worked; however, I'm not one that likes to hear "sex, sex, sex" in all my music. Thankfully, Prism distinguishes itself from almost all other pop music in that sense. The album's two highlights, "Unconditionally" and "By the Grace of God", are both astonishingly Christian in their values that they purport, which is a real surprise given how much Perry has denied her faith in the past few years. Musically, Prism deviates from the normal pop formula and has a darker feel to the music. Sure, there are still some poppy songs in there, but it is a very mature balance of bright and dark that is rare in the industry today. This maturity makes Prism Perry's best work to date and possibly one of the best mainstream pop albums of 2013.

Lyrics: 4/5
Music: 4.5/5
Overall score: 4/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Image
What is the Jurassic Park franchise, and what should it be? Those two questions are sitting at the front of my mind the morning after watching the fifth installment in this series, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom . Sleeping on this movie was not a good idea; instead of being ambivalent as I was last night, I am now deeply concerned that this franchise is not going to continue being one of my more anticipated summer movie events as it has been for both this film and Jurassic World . The predominant problem with watching Fallen Kingdom is structure and pacing. It appears like two separate movies were put together end to end and played as the final product. The first half revolves around getting the dinosaurs off the island of Isla Nublar, saving the animals from its active volcano, while the second half turns into a gothic horror-esque monster movie that is tonally inconsistent by itself. These distinct aesthetics and tones make the finished film nothing more than a bridge b...
Read more

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Image
This is a rare occasion for me. I don’t think The Greatest Showman is a good movie, but I did enjoy watching it most of the time. It’s not a guilty pleasure; it’s more like a sugary, rich dessert that doesn’t strike me as inventive or unique but also doesn’t make me sick of its richness. What does this, no doubt, are the musical numbers. They took me out of The Greatest Showman in the best way possible. Let’s be real: this movie doesn’t know what character development is. It doesn’t know how to craft a compelling story. What it does know how to do is tell a story through music, and for that reason it’s actually quite tolerable to a fan of musicals like myself. It’s not just that the music itself is good; the numbers are filmed well in their own right. They are choreographed and shot quite competently, and the vocal performances are excellent as well. My personal favorites were “Rewrite the Stars,” “The Other Side,” and the likely Oscar contender “This Is Me.” There’s o...
Read more

Jurassic World (2015)

Image
Somehow, some way, Jurassic World  is both one of my most anticipated films of the year and one of the most surprising. The anticipation shouldn't be hard to grasp: I remember seeing the original Jurassic Park  on VHS when I was give or take 8 years old. I fell in love with it immediately and even more so when last summer I saw it on the big screen for the first time at my local arthouse. So, where did the skepticism come from? Well, as I saw more and more material come from Jurassic World , I kept thinking (and hearing from others) that it looked more and more like a mindless CG crapfest similar to the Transformers  franchise...or Jurassic Park III . Thankfully, the 14 years we've waited for a fourth Jurassic Park  film were well worth the wait. Not only is Jurassic World  visually entertaining and thrilling, it also captures a lot of the magic of the original film. The majority of this magic comes from the story. The "too long; didn't read" version...
Read more