KATY PERRY: 143 (Capitol)
Verdict: Lacklustre comeback
Famous for her peppermint swirl dresses and candy-coated pop, Katy Perry was a breath of fresh air when she first swept onto the music scene with 2008’s breakthrough single I Kissed A Girl and a debut album, One Of The Boys, bursting with verve and personality.
But the Californian’s momentum has stalled of late, and the countdown to 143, her first album in four years, has been far from smooth.
The three singles released up front have all flopped spectacularly, with none even making the UK Top 40, while Perry sparked an environmental controversy when her video producers were investigated for filming promotional material, allegedly without proper authorisation, on the protected sand dunes of S’Espalmador in the Balearic Islands.
Katy Perry was a breath of fresh air when she first swept onto the music scene in 2008
Perry reasserted her pop credentials with a powerful performance at this month’s Video Music Awards in New York
Despite all that, 143 manages to avoid being an unmitigated disaster. Named after Perry’s ‘angel number’
Her summer comeback single Woman’s World was widely panned, as was her decision to resume her creative partnership with one of her original collaborators Lukasz Gottwald (aka Dr. Luke), a producer who was accused of sexual, physical and emotional abuse by the singer Kesha. Gottwald, who denied any wrongdoing, countersued Kesha for defamation and a long-running lawsuit was finally settled out of court last year.
Perry reasserted her pop credentials with a powerful performance at this month’s Video Music Awards in New York, revisiting classic hits such as Firework — but a return to the fray that should have soared like a mini-rocket has so far proved a damp squib.
Despite all that, 143 manages to avoid being an unmitigated disaster. Named after Perry’s ‘angel number’ (the numerical shorthand for I Love You), it has its moments. There are some passable, if dated, dance numbers plus two touching songs inspired by her four-year-old daughter Daisy and the latter’s dad, Hollywood star Orlando Bloom.
The first of these, Lifetimes, is an ebullient, house-style banger. The second, Wonder, provides the album with its show-stopping, theatrical finale, one in which Daisy has a fleeting cameo. ‘Stay pure, beautiful girl,’ sings Perry.
Elsewhere, however, the 39-year-old singer chases trends without any real conviction or sense of fun. On the slinky Gimme Gimme and Crush, her voice is annoyingly coated in auto-tune, while the revenge song I’m His, He’s Mine contains an incongruous sample from Crystal Waters’s Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless), a 1991 single about a destitute busker.
The Perry of old emerges only in flashes. All The Love, which starts as an electronic ballad before the pace quickens, allows her to finally open up her voice.
But much of 143 feels generic and laboured, its failings thrown into sharper relief by the rise of a new wave of wittily inventive, less calculating pop goddesses. Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and others have upped the ante. In contrast, this is devoid of the simple musical pleasures that once made Katy so captivating.
PIXIE LOTT: Encino (BMG)
Verdict: Unexpected reinvention
Pixie Lott was one of several female singers who emerged in the slipstream of Amy Winehouse in the late 2000s. Her first two singles, Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh) and Boys And Girls, both topped the UK charts in 2009 by channelling
a retro-soul sound clearly inspired by Amy. She reached No. 1 again, two years later, with All About Tonight, cementing her status as one of the era’s leading party girls.
Now making a musical comeback after a decade that has seen her pivot to the stage and TV, the Essex-raised singer has taken an unexpected turn, edging away from dance to something more classic and band-orientated. Maybe we shouldn’t be quite so surprised, though: when I spoke to her in 2009, Lott confessed she was a pop princess who often felt ‘more hippy, vintage and indie’ — and she gleefully explores all those traits on Encino.
Pixie Lott was one of several female singers who emerged in the slipstream of Amy Winehouse in the late 2000s
Co-writing every track here, the maturing Pixie Lott also exorcises a few of her demons in the album
Made in Los Angeles with producers Dave Gibson and Jeeve, the 33-year-old’s first album since 2014 makes the most of her naturally versatile, expressive voice. There’s an Adele-like richness to Further From Love, while the acoustic-based Show You Love, all strummed guitars and mandolin, taps into this year’s country-pop trend. Co-writing every track here, the maturing Lott also exorcises a few of her demons, addressing online bullying on Somebody’s Daughter and her battles with insomnia on Midnight Trash. The bruised piano ballad Say So, sung in a fragile falsetto, was inspired by what she says was an emotionally draining, three-month stint playing Holly Golightly in the 2016 West End adaptation of Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
But the overall mood is buoyant. The nostalgic Blockbuster Video harks back to a time when watching a film at home meant a rented VHS tape rather than a digital stream. Another country-ish tune, Happy, has taken on fresh meaning for Lott since she gave birth to a son, Albert, last year. The album closes with Comes Back Around, an acoustic song about learning from mistakes that takes inspiration from T. S. Eliot’s war-time poem Little Gidding. If that doesn’t banish Pixie’s frothy image, surely nothing will.
BEST OF THE NEW RELEASES
FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION
Beautiful Happening (Raresong)
Mark Nevin’s band definitely live up to the billing on a comeback album that comes 34 years later
Songwriter Mark Nevin once said that Fairground Attraction were ‘jazz musicians playing pop on folk instruments’, and his band definitely live up to the billing on a comeback album that arrives 34 long years after we last heard from them on 1990’s Ay Fond Kiss.
Gatecrashing Heaven, beautifully sung by Eddi Reader, is a doo-wop ballad, and What’s Wrong With The World? (answer: ‘maybe it’s me’) harks back to their debut hit Perfect. Still able to conjure up a winning hook, the band will begin a UK reunion tour tomorrow night at the Wulfrun Hall at the University of Wolverhampton.
THE VOIDZ
Like All Before You (Cult)
This latest album skips haphazardly between electronic pop, guitar tracks and ambient piano pieces
As the lead singer and main creative force with The Strokes, Julian Casablancas was a pivotal figure in the garage-rock boom of the 2000s. With his other group, The Voidz, he is more adventurous, rather like Blur’s Damon Albarn is in Gorillaz.
Casablancas’ eclectic instincts, however, can sometimes get the better of him, and that’s certainly true here. This latest album skips haphazardly between electronic pop, guitar tracks and ambient piano pieces. Flexorcist, with its echoes of early New York hip-hop and 1908s electro, is a highlight — although fans of The Strokes are warned to approach with caution.
MJ LENDERMAN
Manning Fireworks (Anti-)
Mark Jacob Lenderman plays most of the instruments himself on the album but his guitar heroics take centre staf
The new hope of Americana, North Carolina singer-songwriter Mark Jacob Lenderman puts a country-ish slant on 1990s indie-rock.
The former ice-cream salesman plays most of the instruments himself, but it’s his guitar heroics that take centre stage, ragged on the title track, heavier on Bark At The Moon, an homage to Ozzy Osbourne. His witty lyrics catch the ear, too, with pop culture references abounding. There’s a nod to The Band on You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In, and On My Knees has a reference to ‘Travolta’s bald head’.
She’s Leaving You tells of a middle-aged philanderer who believes Eric Clapton ‘was the second coming’.
Emanuel Feuermann Edition
(Sony 19439977442, seven CDs)
This box includes everything Feuermann recorded for RCA Victor, and if you can be patient with sound quality from 1939-41
Killed by medical bungling in 1942, aged 39, Emanuel Feuermann is still regarded by cellists with awe and envy.
This box includes everything Feuermann recorded for RCA Victor, and if you can be patient with sound quality from 1939-41, you will find his tone quite irresistible. There are trios with Arthur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifetz and our own William Primrose, as well as orchestral works with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy or Stokowski.
My intro to Mendelssohn’s Second Cello Sonata came from the scintillating performance on Disc 7 — Feuermann’s articulation is incredible.
Reviewed by Tully Potter
