Katy Perry: 'Teenage Dream'

 
After amazing summer hits “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream,” is it any wonder Katy Perry’s new album, Teenage Dream, really melts our popsicle? This is no high school sophomore slump—the second album catapults her from pop starlet to a pop prom queen. But like a cheerleader at homecoming, does Perry push the sex card too far?
 
First off, Teenage Dream is a Trapper Keeper full of great pop hooks. And it’s no surprise considering it contains collaborations with some of the top professors of pop: writer-producers Dr. Luke and Max Martin (who provide five of the tracks), Stargate (Rihanna’s “Rude Boy”), Tricky Stewart (Beyoncé “Single Ladies”) and Greg Wells (Mika, Pink).
 
Luke and Martin definitely provide the hits, from the  aforementioned singles to the bouncing “E.T.,” “The One That Got Away” and cute hangover song “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” (even if the latter feels lackluster compared to songs by Luke’s other breakthrough artist of the year, Ke$ha, or Perry’s previous hit, “Waking Up in Vegas”).
 
But unlike Ke$ha, who couldn’t carry the serious songs on Animal, once Perry’s done with the clowning and cartoon antics she successfully pulls off the deeper, more poignant songs. “Circle the Drain”—said to be about ex-boyfriend Travis McCoy and his alleged drug addiction—is a real doozy, chockful of raw emotion. “Not Like the Movies” is a beautifully bittersweet ballad, and “Pearl” is jewel of a female empowerment anthem.
 
While empowered in some areas, we do find it curious just how blatantly Perry pushes the sex envelope. It sometimes feels like a ploy to top the “I Kissed a Girl” faux controversy. The former Christian singer (and daughter of a pastor) offers sex-o-plenty, from appearing nude in cotton-candy clouds on the album cover to the Gurls-gone-Wild tracks. And the recent Teen Choice Awards host’s Dream is damn near a nightmare for parents!
 
The most obvious example is the homage-to-male-genitalia song, “Peacock.” Though clever in theory, it goes limp with its awkward, cringe-inducing rhyme schemes. (Rhyming “peacock” with “beyotch,” “payoff,” “show-it-off,” and “beautiful” is a real stretch.) Then there’s the leaked “lost” track from the album (easily found online), anal sex ode “Milk Milk Lemonade”—it’s simultaneously silly, gross and inventive.
 
It’s a bit of a double standard as Perry called out Lady Gaga in the “Alejandro” video as being blasphemous. “Using blasphemy as entertainment is as cheap as a comedian telling a fart joke,” Perry notoriously said on Twitter about the video. Though we could argue using sex as entertainment is cheapest of all. Not that we’re against cheap entertainment!
 
“Spirituality and sexuality are two separate things,” insists Perry. But hopefully as Perry matures from her Teenage days, she may realize, like Madonna and Lady Gaga have, that spirituality and sexuality are part of one continuous, beautiful, inseparable thing. We have a feeling even God loves being naked on a cotton- candy cloud acting like a horny teenager once in a while.    N