Teenage Dream review

Katy Perry remains herself

Being a pop artist does not only mean having good singing skills and a pretty face and being able to dance. Katy Perry has proved that one should have an original dress style, express oneself freely, have courage to provoke the audience with scandalous lyrics and on the whole use all the available ways to show yourself. Katy’s first mainstream album One Of The Boys was released two years ago and reached the world charts tops with an incredible speed. The singer gained fans in various countries, and her dress style reflecting different epochs, grotesque and often featuring fruit shape and colors has become an example for imitation. Deciding not to make her listeners wait too long Perry releases her third studio work Teenage Dream this summer. According to Katy herself, she has not deviate from the previous album’s sounding too much meaning to please those who have copied it into their playlists. Nevertheless, the rock flavor prevailing before is changed for pop sweetness; the colors are softer, only the same frankness of lyrics is still preserved on Teenage Dream.

The illusion of innocence on Teenage Dream

Teenage Dream has been produced by those who have worked on One Of The Boys but they were joined by other masters among which is the pop genre mogul Thaddis ‘Kuk’ Harrell (the co-writer of Rihanna’s hit Umbrella) and Tricky who works in the same team with him and has tried his hand in this direction for the first time. So is it any wonder that practically every danceable track on Teenage Dream is a potential club hit and ballads are built on a great R&B beat? As for the themes, there is no track among the 14 which would not deal with relationships in this or that way. If on her second album Katy Perry was disappointed with boys and tried a new sensual experience this time around time seems to go back. The title Teenage Dream speaks for itself: first dates, having fun, doubts and questions. It is clear rather quickly that this is just an illusion, most songs have not even a hint at innocence – each of them is definitely performed by an experienced woman. It is enough to listen to the title track and the first single California Gurls featuring Snoop Dogg to check it out. By the way, the latter is a kind of Katy Perry’s response to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ song Empire State Of Mind, Los-Angeles response to New York. The single certainly has the potentials to become as popular as that but girls is not the only sight in California whereas Jay-Z has managed to enumerate all of his town’s strong points so Katy is unlikely to outshine him. The frankest composition on the album is Peacock reminding of The Black Eyed Peas and 20 Fingures’ works. Slower songs E.T. and Who Am I Living For? can boast witty lyrics and faultless arrangements obviously carried out by professionals, and Not Like The Movies is the concentration of the album’s main theme: the love a teenaged girl can only dream of.

A perfect soundtrack for a party

Katy Perry is the brightest example of a modern world pop star. Young, sexy, very original, bold, confidently moving to her goal, she sings of her love sufferings, and the girls recognize themselves in her heroine. Her videos are always colorful, often featuring contrasting colors and unusual dress fashions as well as a good portion of erotica without which Katy’s image is no longer complete. The new album Teenage Dream cover art is the best proof of that. A similar shot, only with a light-hair wig on, can be seen the video for the single California Gurls: the scenery in it are cakes, pastry, caramel and cotton candy with the naked singer resting on its clouds. As on the previous album Katy Perry has managed to find room not only for coquetry and mockingly arrogant attitude to guys but also to demonstrate her weakness and vulnerability. On the whole Teenage Dream is a perfect soundtrack for a party: danceable tracks prevail and the sensual R&B ballads let you relax and confess about your feelings.