Kay Perry's "Teenage Dream" Music Review

Kay Perry's "Teenage Dream"

Music Review

By our guest blogger, Megan O'Malley

Katy Perry, with her perfectly coifed hair, her outrageous fiancé and her booming music career, this girl has everything going for her. Her aptly titled new album, “Teenage Dream,” is a mix of pop music and dance ballads that will make listeners dance, laugh and possibly weep.

The album starts off with the title track. Here, she sings with a nostalgic feel--they aren’t innocent times but they are certainly fun. “Teenage Dream” only goes up from there. “California Gurls” and “Last Friday Night” revel in partying ways and crazy antics. “Last Friday Night” is a ridiculous song but it's hard not to smile at the antics she’s talking about. Hasn’t everybody at one point wondered if someone was sporting was a hickey or a bruise? Although Perry isn’t the only one making this type of danceable pop music, she certainly does it the best. Kei$ha takes this “wild party girl” image so far, she becomes sloppy.  Yet Katy Perry uses the right amount of sass to keep the image light and fun. “Peacock” makes me want to dance--and it's more than just a little tongue in cheek.

That said, as the album goes along, Perry delves into more personal-sounding ballads. They're more serious, but they also aren’t as strong--she does much better with music that's light and fun. Toward the middle of the album, she unfortunately offers sappy sentimentality, particularly in “Circle the Drain” and “The One that Got Away.”

All in all, it was fun. She might lose listeners on the last half of the album, but for the first part, Perry has them hooked. A little reworking and “Teenage Dream” might have been more of a success, but either way, it’s still a fairly good listen.