I love Prism, but when ARTPOP came out it was inevitable to compare the two and ARTPOP is so packed with life and color and life it makes Prism seem so dead, so I see what you mean.
Yes I was a huge fan of TD honestly every song on that album had a punch and single worthy. Prism hasn't impressed me much and it doesn't seem as cohesive
Yup. Even though most songs on TD weren't my cup of tea, they still had a lot of personality and flair. PRISM sounds exactly like what it is: a calculated attempt to take what worked for TD and repackage it into a new set of songs. With TD Katy was only following up an average successful debut, but with PRISM you can just feel the business meetings where they decided they HAD to match or surpass TD's huge single success. Unfortunately, business men know little about creating a good, vibrant pop album.
Dark Horse is by far the best song off PRISM imo... and surprise, surprise: it's probably the most different from TD.
Not enough vulnerability for an album that was supposed to be vulnerable. The emotions are stale, covered up by production; compare the ballads to TOY or even NLTM when Katy sang like a songwriter and not a robot.