Katy Perry Can Fix This

By Fran Hoepfner, a freelance writer who covers pop culture and the Internet

Where to even begin with Katy Perry? She broke big in 2008 with the queer-baiting “I Kissed a Girl,” then followed it up with her bubblegum-pop masterpiece Teenage Dream, two more punchy No. 1 albums, and a spectacularly silly 2015 Super Bowl halftime set. But since 2017, she’s looked increasingly lost in a crowded pop landscape, releasing unmemorable music and making some less-than-cool extracurricular choices (six years as a judge on American Idol, endorsing Rick Caruso for mayor of Los Angeles). When she breaks through now, it’s usually for the wrong reasons. Though Perry’s never recused herself from public life, each new album cycle carries with it a tone of “she’s back!” as if to suggest that it’s possible to usher in another 2010. Unfortunately, her latest rollout may be her least inspiring yet. This summer’s “Woman’s World” was a doofy fake empowerment anthem produced by Dr. Luke; a month later, her team was accused of infringing on a protected natural area of Spain while filming the music video for follow-up single “Lifetimes.”

Ahead of her seventh album, 143 — that’s code in beeper language for “I Love You” — the artist’s reputation, musical and otherwise, hangs in the balance. Does she still have some sparkly juice left in the tank? How does she recover after years of public flopping? We’ve got a few ideas.

We all agree Perry should be working with someone (anyone!) other than former collaborator and alleged sexual predator Dr. Luke. Besides its shallow feminism, the faux-retro “Women’s World,” which Luke co-wrote and -produced, sounds like an uninspired Dua Lipa B-side. Instead of trying and failing to remake Teenage Dream, Perry should hit the studio with an artist who can shake her out of her musical stasis.

Why not cook up a breathy belter à la “Pink Pony Club” with emo rocker turned Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan producer Dan Nigro, or team up with British electropop artist Lostboy for a fun and nonsensical-sounding dance-club hit like “Padam Padam”? She could also sub in one of her otherwise album-filler ballads by working with someone who knows how to make them, such as Finneas. And if Perry is insistent on reuniting with old collaborators, she could try Charlie Puth. He handled writing and production on 2019’s “Harleys in Hawaii,” a sultry, mid-tempo track that managed to be catchy, heartfelt, and silly all at once. Or Calvin Harris, whose “Feels” team-up with Perry gifted us her last real memorable chorus. (Yes, “Never Really Over” is great, but it’s not as great as “Feels”).

The most promising collaboration on 143 is Perry’s song “GORGEOUS” with Kim Petras, which has the potential to broaden the scope of both singers’ reach. But Perry ought to reach across the musical aisle and get fresher talent who can both sing and pander to the Gen-Z audience she clearly desires right now. Two suggestions: Tate McCrae, whose TikTok bad-girl anthem “greedy” sounds like the kind of music Kate Perry wishes she could make, and whose high-energy dance moves could help boost Perry’s power-walking approach. There’s also former Little Mix member JADE, whose dark horse song-of-the-summer contender “Angel of My Dreams” featured a Perry-esque music video starring a prosthetic-dense bodyguard.

The 143 track-listing announcement warns of new songs with 21 Savage, JID, and Doechii. Look, we’ve been down this road before. Katy incorporating rap feels like an embarrassing attempt at relevancy, especially next to her mid-range belting. Even when the features ostensibly work, they end up aging poorly. Snoop’s appearance on “California Gurls” and Juicy J’s on “Dark Horse” sound like mashing two opposing magnets together. 

At its best, pop is about saying something incoherent like, “That’s that me espresso.” Perry should know this. She’s done it before. Her best songs have an air of playful incoherence, like “Hot N Cold” with its boppy list of opposites no more robust than a Sesame Street song, or “Resilient,” in which she rhymes the title word with “full-flower moment.” Perry’s pop persona was at its peak when she was singing about silly things (“Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock? / Don’t be a chicken boy, stop acting like a bi-otch”) rather than vaguely socially aware stuff (everything in “Woman’s World”). Her music should lean back into gibberish. She should be clumsily name-dropping brands and types of food and movie references (after all, “Dark Horse” was inspired by The Craft). No one will overthink what Perry’s trying to “get at” if it’s clear she’s not getting at anything at all.

Part of what has made little sense about Perry’s 143 rollout is the implication that she’s “back” — as though her 2021-2022 Vegas residency Play was something to write off. In fact, her Vegas residency was good! It worked! People came from all over the country to watch her two-hour fantasia of rejected Halloween-party costumes (a red latex bodysuit that looked like a Fruit Roll-up, a toilet-paper-themed mini dress), psychedelic props (a giant toilet, dancing mushrooms, and robots and puppets alike) and obvious but not unwelcome callbacks (yes, Left Shark made it to Vegas). One way to get folks to forget this awful rollout? Jump out of a giant toilet again.

There’s another pop star out there making unremarkable hits and posting her way through it: patron saint of Walgreens music Meghan Trainor. Across her socials, Trainor adheres to a “more is more” philosophy, sharing everything from cute pics of her family to … some horrifyingly gross things about her family, like her and husband Daryl Sabara’s side-by-side toilets. An anecdote like that a decade ago would have been a Katy Perry aside on a late-night show! It’s time for her to start posting through it and keep posting through it. Perry even has a famous spouse who can help in Orlando Bloom. He, like Sabara, was really only relevant between 2001 and 2004, and currently stars in a Peacock-exclusive reality show where he does stunts (someone get him outta there before he breaks an arm).

As a couple, however, Perry and Bloom are mostly giving us blank slate. Though it’s well within their rights to be private around their daughter, they could stand to be a little more self-aware about their own relationship. A recent Instagram Reel in which Perry posted a video of her rapidly aging next to her elven husband had an undeniable charm to it — the moment was funny, grounded, and not giving off the desperation of a dead-eyed TikTok dance. Even Perry’s photo dumps have significantly more appeal than her more recent attempts at reminding us of her stardom. Perry boosting her public image with humanizing shitposts may not make the quality of her music better, but it will prime her audience to react with a little more generosity.

Even when Perry screws up, she manages to pull it back together with a self-deprecating sense of humor. She’s never taken herself too seriously, eager to make fun of missing out on a Best New Artist nod or getting lost at King Charles’s coronation. She’s better at showcasing this in live settings than on record. Wouldn’t you rather see her dancing on Zane Lowe than in the “Woman’s World” music video?

I’m even brave enough to put this idea out there: We need a return to the baffling glory of the Witness 72-hour livestream. Okay, yes, most of it was awful. And yet, unlike a lot of her lackluster hits and embarrassing public gaffes, it was an obvious PR stunt that felt both original and truly Perry-esque. The livestream was overly earnest and frequently hilarious — again, not usually on purpose — that only Perry could or even would want to attempt it. She has a high-energy presence — she’s a real yammerer who could amuse herself gabbing away about parenting or men with a podcast host like Bobbi Althoff for a full hour and not get tired. (Though she should definitely avoid saying things like this on podcasts.) When Capital FM asked if “Last Friday Night” was a better Friday song or Monday song, Perry shook her head and said, “The pop is not that deep …” to laughter in the studio. Put a camera on her and she’ll goof off without prompting. Sooner or later, she’ll strike gold.

After the release of 143’s lead single, Daily Mail reported that Perry was allegedly “freaking out” at the response to the song. That was already evident in the panicky tone of a behind-the-scenes clip Perry posted after it dropped, explaining that the music video was “a bit on the nose” and “satire” (which … debatable). If there’s one thing people who hate something don’t want to hear, it’s why they’re wrong, and Perry’s “I’m not mad, I’m actually laughing” explainer didn’t help her cause. Now “Woman’s World” might threaten the entire album rollout.

But what if Perry dropped “Woman’s World” from it entirely? There’s no need to double down on a song that bad, especially when it’s threatening to tank your supposed comeback album. Cutting the track would allow her an opportunity to admit a fuck-up. Maybe it even launches the song into cult status. People love stuff that’s been taken away from them (see also: Happy Endings). Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time a pop star has scrapped an initial album concept. And what’s more “woman’s world” than changing your mind at the last minute?