Music Review: Katty Perry's Witness

This year American singer, Katy Perry has received a lot of flak for her new political image. She has also received a lot of flak for her music and even the artwork of her new album, Witness.

Let's start by talking about the artwork for Witness.

It features Katy Perry with her new blonde pixie cut slicked back and her hands over her eyes. An eye is in her mount and it almost looks as if she is naked with a shadow of colour around her.

Rather than jumping to conclusions and saying the album cover is awful (which on the surface it is) we should actually dissect it and analyse it.

When you look at the colours, it almost looks as if the background could be Katy's aura. One part of the aura is purple. A quick search shows that purple is a colour of vision, imagination and daydreaming. With Katy's new political image, it's no surprise that she would choose a colour symbolic of her desire to look to the future. The pastel pink on the other hand symbolises a need for serenity and sensitivity, which definitely seems to tie in with Katy's new image.

The blocked eyes conveys a message that people have their eyes closed and don't want to see what's going on in the world around them. This is a fairly true analysis of how most people live there lives. You only have to look at people when they're on public transport and you'll see that they all look like zombies. In fact, on that note, I was on a bus a couple of days ago and some guy said that exact same thing. I had been the only one to pay attention to what he said. Most people ignore their surroundings.

They tend to just speak.

That's where the second part of the cover comes in. She has an eye in her mouth. In an interview Katy said that she sees her voice as her eye the world and that she speaks what she sees.

Basically the cover is about her opening her eyes and rather than just speaking, watching what's around her.

Her view on the world is evident in her song, Chained to the Rhythm.

Are we crazy?
Living our lives through a lens
Trapped in our white-picket fence
Like ornaments
So comfortable, we live in a bubble, a bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the trouble
Aren't you lonely
Up there in utopia
Where nothing will ever be enough?
Happily numb

It clearly indicates that people are going on in their lives without looking at what's around them. They're just focused on their everyday existences without even questioning what's happening. People like to live in a bubble.

Katy's previous music was pop like this, however it was very superficial whereas this isn't. When you really look at the lyrics and see them, they have an excellent meaning, and are about serious issues.

Witness is similar, however it's a love song, where Katy sings and questions, "would you stay with me if I lost it all?" It's an interesting question given she's been in the public eye for more than 10 years now. She wants to know if the people around her are genuine or if they're only around her for her success.

The second single from the album, Swish Swish is rumoured to be about Taylor Swift who she has been feuding with for the last few years, but is it really? It could really be about any friendship that has turned sour. One line in the song sounds like another song.

It's the line:

Another one in the basket

It sounds very much like the song Another one bites the dust featured below.

It's very subtle though, but there is definitely a similarity.

Power, sounds like it's a follow up to one of Katy's earlier tracks, Pearl, featured on her album Teenage Dream. It's a little bit faster paced than Pearl though and sounds like it could have been written when she was with Russell Brand.

The album changes pace with the song, Miss you more, which is a love ballad. Katy sings of missing an ex and reflecting on the times gone by.

Another couple of standout tracks are Tsunami, Save as Draft and Into Me You See, which closes off the album.

The album is much better than what you'd expect based on the first three singles.

It's confusing why the songs chosen as the singles were actually the singles. Collaborations, as they all are, are never ever good. The album generally speaking retains Katy's old sound.

My only criticism of the album (aside from the cover, but from a visual point of view, the cover is rather fitting) is the collaborations and the amount of auto tune used on the songs. They'd be better if they were more raw but that is true of most music released today.

I give it 3.75 out of 5 stars.