Review: Katy Perry – Prism

BY LOUIS DENNIN

It’s charming. You’re probably hoping to hear that Katy Perry’s Prism will greet you with a flurry of new material and send you bouncing off the walls with surprises, but regrettably it does not. While the new album is far from insufferable and certainly has the Katy Perry spark that identifies her music, that’s just about all there is to be found.

The album has its handful of standout tracks, namely “Roar,” “Birthday,” “Unconditionally,” “International Girl,” “Love Me,” and “It Takes Two,” which really do try hard to make the album sound fresh to hungry fans and, given the benefit of the doubt, they succeed. Sadly, their effort is veiled by a distinct lack of risk taking and a few less-than-fantastic selections (“This Is How We Do”). The songs all have an appreciated sense of familiarity to them and deliver one hundred percent in terms of plainly being the colorful Katy Perry songs that she’s famous for.

The disappointment comes from the fact that every single song in the album wishes it were her hit “Firework,” which is arguably the highest point of her career. None of the songs on Prism had much of a pull to them and those that did were good, but could easily be replaced by one of her other works. The attempt is there, the passion is there, and both are appreciated but even Prism’s strongest pieces could not wrestle with past expectations of Perry’s music. A true prism fractures light into a mosaic of its most vibrant colors, but this one just presents us with a foggy reflection of its predecessors.

If you’re just looking for a pleasant little gift basket of Katy Perry songs to add to your collection, Prism won’t disappoint. It’s a solid album that can be listened to over and over again. It just really wishes it could live up to the past success of “Firework.”