Katy Perry Stumbles on Her Latest Album ‘143’

“It’s a woman’s world,” Katy Perry bellows on her new album’s first single. “And you’re lucky to be livin’ in it.” The song “Woman’s World” is Perry’s 36th single as a leading artist. As the title implies, it’s a pop-feminist manifesto, themes she explored more successfully with “Firework” (2010) and “Roar” (2013). It’s a particularly empty and insipid attempt at coopting feminism, its lyrics failing to add anything or say much about the topic. Despite a general attack on women’s rights, including the slashing of reproductive freedom throughout the United States, Perry is content to put out a song with facile faux empowerment bromides like “She’s a winner, champion / Superhuman, number one / She’s a sister, she’s a mother.” What’s worse is that the singer chose to collaborate with Dr Luke on the track, a particularly galling choice when crafting a song that supposedly celebrates feminine power.

“Woman’s World” is just one of the many missteps on Perry’s latest release, 143, her seventh LP. Released four years after the underwhelming Smile, the new record is just another indication of the pop star’s gradually declining creative powers. Despite the all-star cast of producers, songwriters, and some choice guest performers, 143 sounds like an overpriced mess. That’s disappointing because the current pop landscape – dominated by the likes of Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish – would seem very hospitable for Perry. But for the most part, 143 sounds out of step with current pop, and there isn’t much here that is so eccentric and creative to justify the album’s relative mediocrity.

In the pre-release hype, Katy Perry suggested that she wanted to create a dance and pure pop album. It’s a noble effort on the singer’s part and a logical one: the current political and social landscape feels like we’re hurtling towards a hellscape, and pop music has always been a great distraction for bad times. 143 eschews pop balladry for just dance tunes. Longtime Katy Perry fans may be disappointed with 143 due to its lack of earworms, such as her early-career hits like “I Kissed a Girl”. The reason why that song worked is because Perry approached her music with a cheeky, cartoonish eccentricity. But as her career progressed, her sound and look started to get much slicker and cooler, adopting an icy guise, shedding the qualities that made her stand out in the crowded field of pop starlets.

On 143, beats and hooks are frosted with sleek, shiny studio glop. The songs are expertly produced, and there’s an oppressive sense of competence when listening to the album. Perry’s ingratiating charm is buried underneath the thick layers of gloss and sheen. She doesn’t have the pop brilliance of Madonna or Kylie Minogue, so she has to rely on strong material; otherwise, she can come off as blank and neutral. Though she’s gifted with a distinct – if sometimes harsh – voice, it’s not an incredibly moving or supple instrument. So, if saddled with so-so work, she sounds like cookie-cutter pop.

A song like “Crush” is designed to be played at Forever 21. The third single, “I’m His, He’s Mine,” samples Crystal Waters’ brilliant “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”, highlighting just how much better the 1991 club classic is. (Rapper Doechii steals the show with her sexy presence.) The tuneless “Artificial” is aimless, seemingly trying to catch a memorable hook that seems just out of reach.

What’s so frustrating about 143 is that there are glimpses of what could have been a solid listen. Though Katy Perry isn’t a creature of the clubs, she does a decent job of pretending that she has roots in dance culture, and so with good songs like “Lifelines” and “Nirvana”, she displays a flair for house-inspired pop. (Despite its lukewarm commercial and critical reception, 2017’s Witness was a step in the right direction for Perry’s musical growth.) Along with the 1990s-flecked diva house, Perry also sounds comfortable on 1980s-inspired synthpop, as evident in the excellent album closer “Wonder”, which captures the breathless, heart rush of “Firework”.

For an album that seems engineered to be radio-ready, 143 sounds oddly out of place. It’s as if the tracks were pulled together from a shelved project from a few years back. Except for the obvious tributes to Katy Perry’s musical influences, the album sounds stale, cold, and ossified.