Katy Perry
“Witness”
Capitol Records
Any pop fans still lamenting Lady Gaga going all ’70s soft rock on her latest album can breathe a sigh of relief, as colorful arena-packing star Katy Perry is sticking with a synthesizer-heavy sound on her latest album. And that can be both a blessing and a curse.
If you like big, punchy processed beats and gigantic effects-laden synths, this album is your jam from front to back. While on previous efforts Perry’s vocals and personality surfed above the meticulously crafted songs, on this album her processed and auto-tuned vocals at times seem to be drowning in an endless sea of mechanized instrumentation, such as on the title track and “Roulette.” That sound works best with more relaxed mid-tempo songs that give the vocals a little more breathing room like “Miss You More,” “Save as Draft” and “Tsunami.”
But for the most part, the album sticks to the pop-star blueprint almost everybody is using these days: familiar club beats with catchy synth hooks, add picturesque pop singer’s vocals, add a guest here and there from whatever pool of hip rappers you can afford (in this case, Nicki Minaj and Migos) and repeat with the same level of sameness until the album is done.
So, yeah, “Witness” as an album is bright, shiny and on point to sell like gangbusters, but if Perry’s name wasn’t attached to it, these songs — take “Hey, Hey, Hey,” “Pendulum” or “Bigger Than Me,” for example — feel like they can be cranked out by any other pop star with a similar level of popularity (i.e., Ke$ha, Rihanna, etc.).
Perry is maintaining her high-profile status and level of sonic quality on this latest solid release, but at the end of the day she hasn’t delivered anything that sounds very different from what dozens of other pop singers with a small army of cowriters and coproducers behind them are doing right now.
Lorde
“Melodrama”
Lava/Republic
After making a commercial and critical splash with her 2013 debut album, “Pure Heroine,” Lorde took her time writing and recording her follow-up album, and it shows.
The New Zealand-born singer seems to have fleshed out her hauntingly and artfully ethereal sound a little more on her second album, while still maintaining that delightfully spare vibe that feels like Bjork and Goldfrapp crashing a Tori Amos concert.
People who fell in love with Lorde’s sound on tracks like “Royals” from her last album will find plenty to cling to on this go-round, as tracks like “Hard Feelings” and “Writer in the Dark” have the same deeply strange and brooding allure. But Lorde also brings some alternative-rock, new-age and a sprinkling of gothic influences into play for spectacular effect.
She shows her emotional range on this album with songs with similar titles and melodies but vastly different feels to them, like the slickly modern “Sober” returning as the string-heavy and spookier “Sober II (Melodrama).” She repeats that trick again with the piano-driven melancholy beauty of “Liability” circling back later as the somber electro hymn that is “Liability (Reprise).”
Elsewhere, the album balances out the overall mood and percolates with celebratory and youthful swagger on darkly propulsive and relatively upbeat tracks like “The Louvre,” “Supercut” and “Perfect Places.”
Lorde definitely has a story to tell with “Melodrama,” and it’s something you will want to read from beginning to end.
Motionless in White
“Graveyard Shift”
Roadrunner Records
Pennsylvania-based metal band Motionless in White continues to refine its sound while keeping it heavy and spooky on its latest effort, which drenches the crushingly heavy rhythms with increasingly assured gothic and industrial soundscapes.
These days, metalcore bands can sound achingly monotonous and indistinguishable from one another but “Motionless in White” stands out from the pack, thanks in large part to its generous use of electronic dance-oriented synthesizers adding melody to the walls of distorted riffs, and the theatrically ghoulish and charismatic vocals of singer Chris “Motionless” Cerulli.
These elements lift up songs like the fist-pumping anthems “Untouchable” and “Loud (Fuck It),” as well as the more relentlessly pummeling tracks like “Soft” and “570.” Korn singer Jonathan Davis lends his voice to the catchy dirge of “Necessary Evil.” Other songs are just plain epic in feel and scope, like the dynamic and dramatic tracks “Eternally Yours” and “Hourglass.”
Like a really good and unapologetic horror film, this album will probably scare the daylights out of your neighbors, even at a respectable volume. But if you are the type of person that is going to spend your summer angrily hiding from the daylight and going through a lot of black lipstick/dye, combat boots and fishnets, this is your soundtrack.
Prince & The Revolution
“Purple Rain: Deluxe Expanded Edition”
Paisley Park
Even if this was just a remaster of the classic masterpiece album that launched Prince into superstardom, it would be worth picking up. But Prince’s estate has opened his legendary vault and added a CD’s worth of unreleased material from that era of his career, as well as another CD of extended and 7-inch single versions of the album’s hits and their B-sides, as well as a live concert from the “Purple Rain” tour that is available for the first time on DVD.
“Purple Rain” is a flawless album, and its dance mixes and B-sides have been available and poured over in some way, shape or form for the last 30-plus years. So the real mystery here is if the unreleased material lives up to the hype of Prince’s legacy as a prolific and innovative performer and songwriter.
“Purple Rain” was the commercial pinnacle of Prince’s career. After that, he started exploring styles of music outside of the new-wave and rock-influenced funk style he had perfected, eventually dissolving The Revolution and infusing jazz and psychedelic rock into his sound.
Revisiting that era and that sound is bound to be refreshing, considering vintage ’80s synth sounds are back in fashion. And while most of these unearthed tracks might not hold a candle to the hits of “Purple Rain,” there are some tracks that remind listeners how much of a badass Prince was.
Tracks like “Love and Sex,” “Wonderful Ass” and “We Can Fuck” bristle with Prince’s mechanized and funky, futuristic, cocksure swagger. Other less-dense tracks like the breezy “Katrina’s Paper Dolls” and bouncy “Velvet Kitty Cat” harken back to the more-playful and less-aggressive vibe he had in his pre-“Purple Rain” days. There’s also some excellent classic Prince penchant for sexy and anguished balladry on display on the piano-driven “Electric Intercourse” and melancholy instrumental “Father’s Song.” The Revolution also shines brightly on the excellently eclectic pop of “Our Destiny/Roadhouse Garden.”
Whether you are a casual fan or a hardcore Prince addict, this loaded issue has a lot to like and love, and it further shows the world how much of a creative genius Prince really was.