Katy Perry’s new album 143 is the musical equivalent of a rock hitting your windshield on the freeway: minor impact but becomes a major inconvenience and waste of time to assess.
I’m sure you’ve heard countless critics and former fans shit all over this album already, so I want to offer a different perspective. To understand how we ended up here at 143, we have to evaluate where we’ve been.
The beginning of the end, Katy’s 2017 outing Witness was undoubtedly the epitome of cringe in its marketing approach and single selection, but a few deep cuts shone through the massive pile of garbage. “Power,” “Chained to the Rhythm,” and “Bigger Than Me” showed there was perhaps something redeemable under all the rubbish. Right?
And here’s the thing: I actually like Katy Perry’s last album Smile.
On a critical level, it is a hot mound of shit. On a personal enjoyment level, it’s great. There are some real—albeit overly polished—pop bangers on there like “Never Really Over” with its immaculate production (thanks, Zedd) and “Cry About It Later” with its pulsating rhythm. Katy gets a little personal about overcoming struggles and public ridicule on songs like “Resilient,” “Daisies,” and “Not the End of the World.” And some underrated gems like “Tucked” and “Champagne Problems” will remind listeners of the more carefree Teenage Dream or One of the Boys. Yes, the lyrics are pretty nonsensical on some songs, like “Harleys in Hawaii,” but somehow I still find it to be an enjoyable trainwreck—or motorcycle accident.
And I would be remiss to not mention some of the non-album singles surrounding the Smile era, such as “Small Talk,” “365 (with Zedd),” “Electric,” and “Never Worn White,” all solid anthems with easily digestible messages and straight-forward pop musical accessibility. (There’s also “When I’m Gone” with Alesso, which came out at the very end of 2021. It’s a bit after the Smile era, but it fits that same mold.)
Smile is awful; I love it.
But Smile also revealed an ongoing … problem. The album’s title track first released with a featured guest, but it has now been so heavily erased from the internet, it almost feels like a Mandela-effect-induced misremembering. “Smile” originally featured Diddy, a known abuser in the music industry. Seriously, you expect me to believe no one in Katy’s camp knew about his allegations before green-lighting the collaboration?
They scrubbed his feature from the song after a bit on listening platforms, and you can only find it now on certain physical copies of the album which I assume had already been pressed before the decision to remove him. Some fan-uploaded videos are still floating around out there with Diddy’s feature, but almost all of them have less than 500 views. (Also, Katy was hanging out with Diddy many years prior, circa 2017 or 2018.)
Katy Perry herself was also the subject of negative backlash in a similar vein after surprise kissing a young American Idol contestant without his consent, an old video of her sexually groping then-underaged popstar Justin Bieber resurfaced, and another video of her groping a young Shawn Mendes also came under scrutiny. (It’s exceedingly possible there were many other acts that weren’t caught on camera.) She was also accused of bullying American Idol female contestants, which did not bode well in tandem with and appeared antithetical to her “female empowerment” messaging.
I know you’re probably thinking, “Come on, what does an artist’s personal mistakes have to do with their art?” in regards to both Katy and Diddy. Look, while some listeners may be able to separate the art from the artist, most of us have a beating heart and just feel viscerally icky listening to the music of and supporting abusers.
So 143 happened. And dear God, it only gets worse.
Every song except “Wonder” was produced and cowritten with Łukasz Gottwald, more widely and professionally known as Dr. Luke. If you’ve been living under a rock, Dr. Luke assaulted and raped pop artist Kesha among other horrific, disgusting things. She basically lost a legal battle over it, but she went on to make lemonade on her 2017 comeback album Rainbow. Dr. Luke walked away without so much as a scratch on his reputation in the industry, although conscious consumers heavily frowned upon his continued inclusion.
So tell me why the hell Dr. Luke produced and cowrote Katy’s latest female empowerment single “Woman’s World”? It feels beyond empty and overall phony. I genuinely wonder if Katy was forced to endure making an album with Dr. Luke as some kind of punishment by her record label for her back-to-back commercial flop-fests in 2017 and 2020. Has anyone checked in on her? Is she okay?
Then again, birds of a feather flock together. Given that Katy is no saint herself, I’m really not all that surprised. Plus, Katy routinely worked with Dr. Luke on past albums pre-Witness, so what’s new?
Truly, it’s disheartening to watch one of the 21st century’s most successful popstars fall from grace in this manner. Think back to 2008 when songs like “Hot n Cold” and “I Kissed a Girl” dominated radio airwaves. Remember the early 2010s when Katy’s pop behemoth Teenage Dream was inescapable? It was unignorable for good reason: that album slaps! She achieved three solid years of hit singles from that one record and its deluxe version, raising her chart numbers to rival only Michael fucking Jackson. Teenage Dream is without a doubt one of the best pop albums of the 2010s. Her 2024 VMAs performance seemed to be an attempt at reminding the general public of her stature.
We can give Katy Perry her flowers and criticize her, too.
As a guilty Smile enjoyer, I have facilitated numerous conversations over the past four years with coworkers and friends about exactly how monumental Katy’s career has actually been. It seemed like people wanted to forget—or even erase—her success after 2017’s embarrassing Witness era. I tried to introduce former fans to her newer material because I could still identify glimpses of Katy’s initial appeal buried under all the dirt.
But 143 is the final nail in the coffin. It’s indefensible. Not only are the optics and implications of working with Dr. Luke horrendous, the album itself is also piping hot garbage. From pure speculation, it’s clear the label was desperate for Katy to return to whatever might have made her popular in the first place. Maybe it’s the mindless lyrics? Maybe it’s the boring production? Maybe it’s working with Dr. Luke? Maybe it’s the hair? Whatever it was, we have to bring it back!
They fail to realize that Katy became so likable because of her outlandish nature and unabashed expression. Releasing an ~edgy~ album with a song titled “Ur So Gay” but also kissing a girl and enjoying it? That’s intriguing! Her scantily-clad flaunting on “California Gurls” and sloppy drunk partying on “T.G.I.F. (Last Friday Night)”? That’s fun! Catchy pop hooks and empowering fight songs on Prism? That’s radio gold, baby!
When her quirky escapades became theatric and attention-seeking throughout the release of Witness, that’s when her eccentric demeanor became inauthentic and unlikable. Leaning into the clown insults through the aesthetics on Smile was salt in the wound and only made the public take her less and less seriously. All the lyrics about resilience showcased on that album were simultaneously too stodgy for the average listener to care about and yet too provocative to enjoy on a pop-friendly level.
So Katy’s team wants to revert back to the basics: senseless lyrics, upbeat pop songs, and, well, dark hair. Focus on her body, focus on her clout, focus on anything but what makes her genuinely human. Her overly airbrushed, chrome-gilded image for the 143 era turns out to be plainly unrelatable and increasingly lifeless. Any unique personality that Katy had left in her has been stripped away and covered up. She has become a husk, a sad shell for her label to milk dry and make a quick buck off name recognition, featured guests, and outrage. (Seriously, this album feels like ragebait. It’s like it’s intentionally bad so everyone talks about it.)
From this perspective, I almost feel bad for Katy Perry.
This is not an album review. I’m not here to break down every track and give my thoughts. I’m judging this more as a situation holistically. I believe context is important when discussing and critiquing music, even though this album has such little substance; it’s hard to properly critique something when there’s simply nothing much there. Separating the art from the artist is a coward’s poorly rationalized excuse to deflect from pondering why they choose to support something or someone so irredeemable.
From this perspective, I don’t almost feel bad for Katy Perry.
