Album Review: Smile by Katy Perry

Release Date: August 28 2020

I was pretty interested to see if Katy Perry would bend at all to the new trend in pop music, that is distortion and experimentation. She didn’t, this album was very traditionalist pop and sounded like it could be from 2011. The real question is: is there room in the current pop-sphere for early 2010s, clubby, ultra radio friendly power pop songs or are they eventually going to be bred out. Because if you look at similar artist’s recent projects, it’s clear to see that they are moving away from that type of music. For example, Taylor Swift’s album, “Folklore” from earlier this year is a throwback to her roots in singer-songwriter folk and little bit earlier then that, Miley Cyrus went country on “Younger Now”. However Katy seems to be very loyal to this seemingly dated sound. That isn’t to say there aren’t enjoyable moments on this album, the song “Smile” is really good. To me it’s a perfect pop song, the chorus is infectious and it’s probably my favourite song Katy Perry has ever made. My complaints with this album are mostly with how painfully outdated everything feels and with the occasional lame song-writing. But it’s really not that bad. I’m kinda hoping she goes really alternative on her next album and sounds like Charli XCX and gets an MC Ride feature. That would be interesting.

Favourite Songs: Never Really Over, Smile, Only Love

5.5/10

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