Arts & Entertainment, The Muse

Perry serves up power pop debut

All right, so she kissed a girl. Yeah, it’s a little trashy and reeks of 2002, but as long as she doesn’t have ink on her lower back, Katy Perry can’t be written off just yet.

If you can get past ‘I Kissed A Girl,’ the tacky – albeit extremely catchy – lead single, Perry’s Capital Records debut, One of the Boys, offers a collection of power pop that is ripe for summer blasting.

Listed as writer or co-writer for all of the album’s 12 tracks, Perry’s spunky sound is bolstered by a handful of pop masterminds – most notably Lukasz ‘Dr. Luke’ Gottwald and Max Martin.

The collaborations lead us to question whether Perry is truly the ‘artist’ she wants us to believe she is, or simply another product of the industry machine.

Regardless, the album is chock-full of sassy, arena-ready anthems including ‘Waking Up In Vegas’ and ‘If You Can Afford Me.’

The album highlight, ‘Hot N’ Cold,’ comes courtesy of Gottwald and Martin.

The two joined forces for Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone,’ which, let’s not lie, is nothing short of epic, and ‘Hot N’ Cold’ follows in its footsteps with a pulsing beat and rousing chorus.

‘Someone, call the doctor / got a case of a love bipolar,’ Perry sings, blasting her wishy-washy lover.

However, she still stumbles on the Dave Stewart co-write, the sappy ‘I’m Still Breathing,’ and on the ridiculously corny ‘Mannequin,’ on which Perry asks, ‘Are you a man / or just a mannequin?’

Whether Perry can sustain a career once her girl-on-girl blunder begins to fade is unknown, but judging from the handful of radio-ready hits on the album, it’s likely we’ll hear plenty more from her second-hand, cherry-ChapStick coated lips.

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