- Katy Perry released her new album, "143," on Friday.
- The final track, "Wonder," includes a sweet lyric about Perry's young daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom.
If you're resilient enough to make it through Katy Perry's schlep of a new album, "143," you might catch an interesting detail, at long last, 91 seconds before the tracklist ends.
In the 11th and final song, "Wonder," Perry dedicates a succinct pep talk to Daisy, the name of her child with Orlando Bloom.
"Stay free, little Daisy," Perry sings in the second verse. "Don't let the envious ones say that you're just a weed."
This isn't the first time Perry has paid tribute to her 4-year-old daughter in her music. When Perry was still pregnant, she released a single called "Daisies," which was later included on her 2020 album, "Smile."
However, it is the only discernible reference to Daisy on "143" — and it appears to be the album's sole personal detail, period.
The preceding 10 tracks are both sonically and lyrically faceless, full of routine come-ons ("If you want my body, gotta blow my mind"), predictable tropes ("Drippin' like some ice / Know you wanna take a ride, ride"), half-hearted metaphors ("I'm just a prisoner in your prison"), and robotic rhyme schemes that border on nonsensical ("I'm on a new vibration / Yeah, I need some medication / Your ooh-ooh-ooh / I need an explanation"). Perry doesn't sound invested in any of it. She hardly sounds like she's there at all.
The seventh track, "All the Love," is perhaps her best attempt at sincerity, gesturing toward a real sense of internal conflict in the first verse: "I had accepted love wasn't for me," Perry sings. "I would just live with the regrets."
But alas, as soon as the chorus hits, the song retreats back into repetition and lovey-dovey clichés. It's a tolerable dance track, but deeply forgettable; like its peers, it fails to reveal anything about Perry as a person or artist that we didn't already know.
Perry's superfans will be sure to offer "Lifetimes" as a rebuttal; the album's sixth track, which Perry recently performed at the VMAs, was purportedly inspired by Daisy. "I wrote 'Lifetimes' about her," Perry told The Sun. "Every night, before we go to sleep, I say, 'I love you,' and then I ask, 'Will you find me in every lifetime?' and she says, 'Yes.'"
Unfortunately, this sweet source of inspiration doesn't show up in Perry's lyrics (which is to say, the lyrics she wrote with seven other people). There's nothing intimate or unique in the song itself, only platitudes you've heard a million times: "I'll love you for life," "I know you feel it," "Baby, you and me for infinity." Without the added context, it's lifeless.
Perry has already defended "143" in an interview with Audacy, insisting, "It's just a fun record. It's not that deep." But in the words of "Pop Pantheon" host DJ Louie XIV, "The problem isn't so much about fun vs. depth as much as it is good vs. bad."
Music doesn't need to be confessional or true-to-life in order to be good. It does need to have at least a glimmer of personality, something distinctive that draws you in and keeps you coming back for more. Sabrina Carpenter's summer smash "Espresso" is a great example of this — "I'm working late 'cause I'm a singer" is an objectively generic line, but true to Carpenter's brand, it's delivered with humor and whimsy. Even Perry's own quirky hits of yore, like "Waking Up in Vegas" or "California Gurls," while not deep or vulnerable, definitely had spunk.
Perry's voice used to have passion and character, her production had texture, and her lyrics had wit. Everything on "143" has been buffed and lacquered beyond recognition. It doesn't stand out among the scores of mediocre pop albums released every year; its songs could've been sung by Ava Max or Meghan Trainor or salvaged from Bebe Rexha's latest studio session with David Guetta.
Daisy's shoutout in the final hour should be a highlight, but instead, the contrast is unflattering; the all-too-brief glimpse into Perry's inner life, her fears and hopes as a parent, proves just how vacant the rest of the album truly is.