katy perry - prism

this album is much stronger than the last one IMO but still mostly 4 amazing songs and a buncha shit i don't ever need to hear again

the vocoder solo though... there's no reason for something that good to be in a katy perry album cut

There was actually a pretty similar vocoder solo on an album track from Ke$ha's last LP.

roar sounds like a children's song to me. maybe she can perform it on sesame street?

(nb that is not a bad thing)

International Smile is basically a lift of Daft Punk's Discovery-era sound anyway, so the vocoder solo is almost there by necessity.

Gave this a play today and it's basically a Robyn album without any discernible personality.

so... it's a Robyn album?

i don't even feel an urge of duty to listen to a new katy perry album, like...you guys, c'mon, look at your lives and choices etc

lol

is katy perry blacklisted from sesame street?

maybe if she wears something a little less revealing they'll let her back? i didn't think her outfit was so bad tbh

She is almost always hoarse when singing live, which made people think she couldn't actually sing.

― Bitch Fantastic (DJP), Tuesday, October 15, 2013 7:39 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pytq1JrQQwk#t=141

"Unconditionally" stinks of death.

birthday is like janet jackson meets Wham!

( ... which is fine obviously)

ha that's an interesting description

I'm not kidding when I say Birthday sounds exactly like Betty Who. You may be into her, surm, if you aren't already.

yeah the bit where she goes into her head voice and says "youUUU should call" is v v v Betty Who

hmm i should take a look!

okay on "Dark Horse", is that an Art of Noise sample or a pastiche?

"This Is How We Do" better not ever be a single, what a shitshow

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/katy-perry-tops-billboard-worst-week-album-sales-230701753.html

"Katy Perry has become one of the biggest pop stars in the world by not making us worry about her."

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2013/11/18/131118crmu_music_frerejones

first of all that statement is true

2nd upon closer inspection i think Birthday is the best song i've ever heard

and Unconditionally is the worst

true

:)

I get irrationally angry with the bizarre syllable emphasis in how she says "unconditionally"

not irrational at all, makes perfect sense imo

i mean honestly it was almost worth hearing it just to laugh out loud

i still get emotional about how she mangles simple words like "hero" and "past" every time i hear "Roar"

nothing sounds so bad as her voice on WALKING ON AIR tho

also when i heard the walking on air chorus it was kind of like the malkovich scene in being john malkovich

gave this another try yesterday (no idea why tbh). what's with the "twaunie twaunie" pronunciation of 20/20 in 'Ghost'?

Her maxed (Maxed?) out voice in "Unconditionally" hurts my ears as bad as Miley's does in "Wrecking Ball." It's like amplifying a brick wall and then blowing it up.

So "Dark Horse" turned out to be a grower, huh?

Putting Unconditionally out as the second single instead of that really was a huge mistake. Dark Horse has already been a much bigger hit and they've not even put the video out yet.

"This Is How We Do" better not ever be a single, what a shitshow

― some dude, Wednesday, October 23, 2013 6:25 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this song is now in an ad for, i dunno, her fragrance or something, so i'm already bracing myself for it being the next single

"Unconditionally" really flopped fantastically -- it peaked at #14, where her NINE previous singles were all top 3

the thing that bothers me a bit is how much media's running with the "wow, 'Dark Horse' was such an unexpected hit! LIKE A DARK HORSE, SUCH SYNCHRONICITY" angle. of course it was a hit, it already got A/B tested against "Walking on Air"

"Unconditionally" really flopped fantastically -- it peaked at #14, where her NINE previous singles were all top 3

― scott c-word (some dude)

Same in the UK. Even a slot on the final of X Factor couldn't get it higher than 25. Only Thinking of You has charted lower out of all her singles. Feel like that choice of single lost her a lot of the Christmas sales as it didn't push the album any further when sales are at their highest.

the (relative) failure of "Unconditionally" makes me irrationally happy

(mostly I am fine with dark horse, because it is getting sarah hudson royalties, and good for her)

pardon my ignorance but who's she?

I was listening to "Dark Horse" last night after having not listened to it for a while. It's a cool tune.

Her previous nine singles went 1-1-1-1-1-3-1-2-1 in the Hot 100. Maybe they thought they could get away with anything.

Of course Dark Horse restarted the streak by also hitting #1.

one of the post-avril songwriters (see also skye sweetnam, katy rose, come to think of it probably katy perry too) from the mid-00s that got about an album each

Skye Sweetnam! i think for the last few years all my vague memories of her started to get conflated with Sky Ferreira

"Dark Horse" is the first Katy Perry single in a long while that doesn't desperately beg you to fall in love with it on first listen; that alone makes it a nice departure. But it's a great song on its own merits, and given how no critics singled it out as an obvious mega-hit, I understand the dark horse narrative

Isn't that sort of a case where critics are being dumb, considering that it was focused-grouped by her fans into being a single? I mean, I don't know the timeline so there's obvious overstatement going on there but when a megastar's large, rabid fanbase says "this is the song you should release as a single" and the artist does, should it take anyone by surprise that the single does well?

I'm flummoxed by the need to make this into a story; as clickbait it appeals to, like, 12 people in the United States.

it's not really a story so much as it just hit no. 1