Following her hit album Teenage Dream, Katy Perry pulled a major comeback with the release of her song “Roar,” which is just one of the popular hits from her newest album Prism.

Contrary to the image Teenage Dream set up for the artist, Prism reveals a more serious side of the Perry following life changing events like her divorce. For example, the song “Ghost” serves as a mirror into Perry’s view on her divorce with her ex-husband Russell Brand. While it does still contain upbeat songs like her previous album, Prism contains songs that could be considered different genres such as rap in “Dark Horse.”

At some point within the album, Prism takes a left turn and begins to lose the audience’s attention. This is most likely due to the unfamiliarity fans feel towards these new genres that Perry is attempting. With the first half of the album being upbeat with that familiar pop feel, the sudden drop into slightly more meaningful and emotional songs have the qualities to kill any upbeat dance filled moment. For example “International Smile” which is the last song before the album takes this sudden emotional turn is significantly different than “Ghost”. The inclusion of synthesized lyrics within “International Smile” makes the already appealing positive song even more ear enticing. To be quite honest when I first heard “Uncondi

tionally” on the radio I believed that it was actually Demi Lovato who was singing the emotional song. The lyrics and tone just seemed more fitting for Lovato and unrelated to the image Perry had established. Her decision to do a collaboration w

ith the rapper Juicy J helped add some standing to “Dark Horse” as a rap song. Not only did his presence help stabilize the song’s image, it also brought his rap fan base to Perry and exposed them to her work, possibly attaining Perry new fans in the process.

The album was the number one album downloaded off of iTunes during the week of its release. Prism also held the number one spot on different charts such as the Billboard 200. Despite its popularity during its release, Prism only sold around 286,000 copies. This is actually an improvement from the 192,000 copies of Teenage Dream reportedly sold during its release making Prism Perry’s number one selling album.

On the upside, songs like “Roar” are more about perseverance rather than simply pleasing one’s partner. Prism’s overall theme is about the newfound strength that appears after overcoming adversity which many speculate was inspired by Perry’s previous relationship. In an interview with MTV Perry stated, “The reason why I called this record Prism is because I actually finally let the light in and then I was able to create all these songs that were inspired by letting the light in and doing some self-

reflection and just kind of working on myself.” Also, the fact that there are different genres within the album creates diversity that’s appealing to a wider fan base while still containing the old pop flare that she is known for. Based on these qualities, I believe regular fans and listeners will be slightly disappointed with the second half of the album. Dedicated Katycats, however, will love the fact that their queen is branching out into new horizons.

As a fan, I would have to give the album a 4/5 because while it does have some catchy songs, it also features songs that could be seen as simple repetitions. “Birthday” for example made me think of “Teenage Dream” within the first note. The theme of pleasing someone simply because it’s something as menial as his birthday reverts back to her previous album’s overall theme of unintelligible acts done for the other’s pleasure. While it is understandable that most music is about certain topics like love and relationships, the fact that some songs feature similar lyrics delivers the idea that the songwriter may have just rushed to deliver stereotypical songs that are capable of being chart toppers.