Kris Canner Album Review 12/8/13 Roaring Back with PRISM

Its been three years since pop sensation Katy Perrys most successful album Teenage Dream hit the shelves, and Perry is back, strongly roaring with a new chromatic album titled PRISM.

Teenage Dream, which is a whimsical, sunny and fancy-free album skyrocketed to the top of the charts and produced singles that kept Perry at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for 69 consecutive weeks. The album also tied Michael Jacksons record for most singles at number one.

Perry describes the release of PRISM as being a transitional album that is much more dark and schizophrenic than Teenage Dream. Between the release of Teenage Dream and Prism, Perry has gone through a lot in her personal life.

Perry married and divorced comedian and actor Russell Brand, went on a worldwide tour, released a documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me, and has started dating musician John Mayer.

The first single off of PRISM, titled Roar is an anthem calling for you to stand up for what you believe in, to pick yourself up and to stay strong. While Roar has a great pop sound and catchy chorus, its lyrics come off as a little cheesy and weak. Sales of the single however were anything but weak.

557,000 copies of Roar were sold in its first week on sale. This was the highest total of sold copies of any single release in its first week for 2013. Roar also peaked as number one on the Billboard Hot 100. While the song may not be Perrys best or catchiest, Roars digital sales and success on the charts shows the power and interest in all of Perrys music.

The second single off of the album, Unconditionally, is a pop love ballad. The songs lyrics talk about insecurities, describe the importance of acceptance, freedom and being loved unconditionally. Unconditionally is Perrys favorite song off of the PRISM album and I can see why.

Unconditionally has an incredibly powerful and catchy chorus with a big instrumental build up. The lyrics are simple, poetic and mature.

One of my favorite songs on the album is Walking on Air. The song is exactly what the title implies, airy. The song is a house music song and seems to fit Perry very well. The beat is fantastic and is the perfect combination of pop and dance.

One of my other favorite songs is Dark Horse, which features Juicy J and was written by Perry. The song was striking to me because it is much darker than many of Perrys candy coated sounding pop songs. The song has a strong urban and hip-hop influence but still maintains a pop feel. It is captivating and sensual.

Overall, I Perrys album PRISM is impressive and engaging. Perry took a risk and moved in a different direction than the music of her most successful album. I give Perry praise for that decision, and feel that Perrys fans agree.