It’s a shame that Katy Perry’s new album opens with ‘Woman’s World’, arguably the most disastrous comeback single in recent memory. This mechanical-sounding female empowerment anthem was partly sunk by poor optics: Perry was widely criticised for crafting it with Dr Luke, the producer who was accused (though never convicted) of emotional abuse and sexual assault by Kesha. But at the same time, ‘Woman’s World’ was also torpedoed by its hopelessly vague, dated lyrics. When Perry sings “she’s a flower, she’s a thorn, superhuman, number one”, it’s hard not to wonder whether ChatGPT should have been credited alongside her five co-writers.
It would be easier to forget about ‘Woman’s World’ if it were buried at the end, but at least ‘143’ improves when it’s over. When this album was announced in July, it was billed as a “sexy, fearless, return to form… jam packed with the empowering, sexy and provocative pop anthems you’ve come to love”. In recent years, Perry has been more prominent as an American Idol judge, but clearly she wants to be a massive pop star again. This, presumably, is why she has decided to reconnect with her main ‘Teenage Dream’ era collaborators: Dr Luke is credited on each of this album’s first ten tracks, while Norwegian hitmakers Stargate oversee the cheesy final song ‘Wonder’.
In its middle section, ‘143’ nearly lives up to the sales pitch. Second single ‘Lifetimes’ is a pretty on-the-nose house-pop stomper, but the chorus does burrow into your brain – Perry didn’t become one of the world’s biggest pop stars without knowing her way around a good hook. ‘Crush’, which borrows from French Affair’s 2000 Eurodance hit ‘My Heart Goes Boom (La Di Da Da)’, is another satisfying club banger. And Perry serves up some serious ear candy on ‘Gorgeous’, a slinky girls’ night out duet with fellow Dr Luke collaborator Kim Petras, who supplies the chaotic energy that this song really needs: “Fuck up the club, ain’t payin’ for the damage.”
Elsewhere, though, Perry seems to be grasping for ideas. ‘Artificial’ is really just a rewrite of her grinding ‘Teenage Dream’ hit ‘E.T.’, though this time she’s singing about a bionic man rather than an alien. “Are you gonna love me like a human? Can you touch me in a simulation?” she asks, sounding as though she’s about to road-test a new VR headset.
‘I’m His, He’s Mine’ pairs Perry with rising star Doechii, a shrewd move, but the track itself sucks the life out of a chunky sample from Crystal Waters’ 1991 club classic ‘Gypsy Woman’. It doesn’t help that Perry’s lyrics express some pretty unsisterly sentiments given that she was telling us “it’s a woman world” three songs earlier. “Why you overworkin’ on him like a suntan? Go and get your own man,” Perry sings.
The result is a record that sometimes hits the target but rarely leaves a lasting impression. Pop fans have a fondness for resurrecting “flop” albums that were given short shrift when they first came out: Mariah Carey’s ill-fated soundtrack album ‘Glitter’ and Christina Aguilera’s sonic hodgepodge ‘Bionic’ have both become cult classics of sorts. But even this fate seems unlikely for ‘143’, a serviceable but slightly dull collection on which Perry struggles to relocate her old sense of fun.
