Katy Perry unveils her new album entitled Witness and which is undoubtedly an artistic reinvention.
Pop for electronics
This time, Katy Perry leaves aside purely commercial pop to experiment with disco music and electro. Moreover, the genius of pop Max Martin, producer responsible for all the hits of his musical career, is only present in 5 of the 15 tracks present in the album to give room to other producers including the indietronica band Hot Chip, the Canadian electronic music group Purity Ring and the producer of trap and hip hop Mike WiLL Made-It among others. Therefore, we have in front of us crazy songs such as Mind Maze, where we use the autotune thoroughly as a musical weapon, Déjà Vu a song ready to have a remix, Power, a mix between rock and electro of the 80s and Bigger Than Me, a pearl of the album, which perfectly mixes the pop of Teenage Dream and the electro of Witness.
However, Katy Perry is still a pop star and she knows it. Songs such as Witness, Hey Hey written by the talented Sia and Roulette, another gem of the album, which uses a mix between I Like It Rough and Lady Gaga's Dance In The Dark , are there not to let fans down on the pop sound characteristic of her old albums. At the same time, the naughty side of the song Birthday, released in 2013, is present on Bon Appétit and Nicki Minaj, queen of collaborations, sets fire to Swish Swish, a possible response to Taylor Swift's song Bad Blood .
A very personal album
After the release of the politically charged Chained To The Rhythm, Katy Perry described her new sound as "Purposeful Pop". However, the album is more directed towards the side of heartbreak, including Miss You More, a track in which she states "I miss you more than I loved you", Save As Draft where she uses email as a metaphor for a romantic relationship and Into Me You See, the sister of Not Like The Movies. If you're a fan of Katy Perry's emotional and desperate side of The One That Got Away, you're not going to be disappointed at all.
Finally, Witness is a real surprise: Katy Perry has decided to evolve musically by revealing sometimes particular but interesting songs and this is a great proof of maturity on the part of the artist. Nevertheless, this is a huge risk, the biggest being to confuse rather than convince with the sound change, and witness a loss of fans.
Another problem, the most important in our opinion, is that ofwords. Leaving aside the double meaning of Bon Appétit, it looks like Katy Perry was pressed for time to write. Therefore, we really have pathetic lyrics "A tiger, Don't lose no sleep, Don't need opinions, From a shellfish or a sheep", which do not allow us to discover the album in all its potential. Katy Perry has never been very good at writing, certainly, but By The Grace Of God has proven otherwise. In addition, for an album that says itself political and clearly personal, we expected a little better.
7,5/10
