Katy Perry is one of the most bankable contemporary pop singers—"Roar," the first single from her new album Prism, became her eighth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August. Prism is expected to sell about 300,000 copies its first week in stores.
It is a dreadful album, way too concerned with preserving Perry's star than using said star to push sonically. It is also dreadful because Perry has absolutely nothing to say.
Her lyrics are rife with clichés and idioms that, like her sound, reiterate instead of inventing or even twisting for ironic wordplay. That much is clear from the titles of her songs: "Walking on Air," "Dark Horse," "By the Grace of God," "It Takes Two," and "Choose Your Battles" are but a few of Prism's offerings.
Without a shred of cleverness or wit, Perry ***** out lyrics that would be groan-worthy coming from someone speaking idly on the subway. I calculated and the average time it takes her to drop a cliché on the Deluxe Edition, 16-track version of Prism song is 11.4 seconds. Katy Perry is a pop cultural parrot. She is squandering her platform. She is the most flavorless pop diva to hold such a post in immediate memory.
Bite my tongue
Rock the boat
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything
The eye of the tiger
Floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee
I’m walking on air
I’ll take your bad days with your good
Straight stunting
Getting our nails did
It takes two
Two sides to every story
I’m not that innocent
Clichés are an essential part of not just pop music, but speaking. Knowing how to use them bespeaks a certain linguistic aptitude. I embrace them full-on and wholeheartedly. Dismissing someone outright for using them would be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and it would immediately invalidate someone like Aaliyah ("One in a Million," "Try Again," "Rock the Boat"). The thing about Aaliyah was that her clichés served as a down-to-earth contrast for Timbaland's utterly out-of-this-world approach to sound (and the space between it). Also, she had a way of wrapping her allure around a song and squeezing it to life. Katy Perry is merely competent at the offset—subpar material only makes her sound less crucial than she already is. I'd honestly rather listen to Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2 than ever endure Prism again, and I hated the Timberlake record. Where event pop albums are concerned, Prism is at the bottom of the barrel.
FULL LIST:
http://gawker.com/all-226-cliches-ut...bum-1451718946