Album review: Katy Perry, 'Teenage Dream'
1 star (out of 4)
Katy Perry seems like a likable enough goofball, the kind of diva whose flashy trash fashions and offbeat humor promise something more interesting than formula pop.
But formula pop is exactly what she dishes out on her second album, “Teenage Dream” (Capitol), split between girls-gone-wild cliches and melodramatic power ballads. The Frankenstein-like productions – the latest gleaming, assembly-line product by usual suspects Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Tricky Stewart and Stargate, among others --- sap the music of personality, presence, surprise.
Too often she sounds robotic, like a wind-up toy incapable of singing with any elegance or nuance. She either stutters for effect (“E.T.”) or lands on the beats so emphatically (You! Make! Me! Feel-like-I’m-livin’-a! Teen! Age! Dream!) that it’s almost comical. The production does her no favors, giving her lines a pasted-together artificiality. Singing ability is not a prerequisite for making great pop music, but original ideas and inventive presentation are -- and both are lacking.
Katy Perry seems like a likable enough goofball, the kind of diva whose flashy trash fashions and offbeat humor promise something more interesting than formula pop.
But formula pop is exactly what she dishes out on her second album, “Teenage Dream” (Capitol), split between girls-gone-wild cliches and melodramatic power ballads. The Frankenstein-like productions – the latest gleaming, assembly-line product by usual suspects Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Tricky Stewart and Stargate, among others --- sap the music of personality, presence, surprise.
Too often she sounds robotic, like a wind-up toy incapable of singing with any elegance or nuance. She either stutters for effect (“E.T.”) or lands on the beats so emphatically (You! Make! Me! Feel-like-I’m-livin’-a! Teen! Age! Dream!) that it’s almost comical. The production does her no favors, giving her lines a pasted-together artificiality. Singing ability is not a prerequisite for making great pop music, but original ideas and inventive presentation are -- and both are lacking.
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