Critics savage Katy Perry’s 143, saying her comeback album sounds like it was created by artificial intelligence
Music critics’ opinions on Katy Perry’s eagerly awaited seventh studio album, 143, did not improve on Thursday night when it was made available on streaming services.
143, the acronym for «I love you» that Perry also believes represents her «angel number,» is her first album in four years, having come out after Smile in 2020.
According to a critical review published in a major entertainment publication, Perry’struggles to recover her brilliance on the flat 143.’ Perry’s choice to collaborate with her former music producer Dr. Luke, who resolved his long-running sexual harassment lawsuit with Kesha last year—a claim Kesha adamantly denied—was highly criticized even before the album was released.
However, despite the hitmaker’s involvement (he writes 10 of the 11 songs), the reception hasn’t been great thus far.
«The album is flat, coasting on cascades of lyrical clichés and musical ideas that rarely crest,» Variety critic Steven J. Horowitz says. Perry seems detached and disillusioned in many of the album’s eleven tracks, as though she had recently punched in between «American Idol» tapings.
«A disappointing slide away from the savvy she once so effortlessly exuded,» the album says, with no hint of the sharp wit that bolded some of her finest singles.
Some of the songs, according to Horowitz, seem «mechanical,» while «Crush» sounds like a Vengaboys B-side.
He continues, saying, «The lyricism on ‘143’ is rife with clichés, as though it was generated through AI, like with her past few albums.»
The album «isn’t the calamity expected – but it isn’t good, either,» according to The Guardian, which rated it two out of five stars.
It feels a little out of place, critic Alexis Petridis writes. «It feels like a common-or-garden mediocre pop album with the unfortunate timing of being scheduled in the wake of the three wildly successful and messy inventive albums that suggest a certain raising of the pop bar: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan, The Brat by Charli XCX, and Short N’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter.»
«That its author and her team didn’t notice seems far more intrinsic to 143’s downfall than questionable choices of collaborator, misfiring videos, or even damage to the sand dunes of S’Espalmador.» This is something that would have formerly sufficed, at least commercially, but won’t now.
The final sentence alluded to Perry’s under investigation for potential environmental harm to the Spanish dunes where she recorded her music video for the song Lifetimes. According to Mark Kennedy of AP, the record was «uninspired and forgettable.»
Despite decrying cynicism, Kennedy labels the album’s closing tune Wonder as the «worst,» describing it as a «cynical attempt to have moms in the audience wave their hands in unison as balloons float up.»
Kennedy continues, ‘But by this time, she’s lost our faith, with the 10 preceding tracks a sonic slog,’ even though her daughter Daisy Dove appears on the tune.143′ is merely a number; it has no soul or passion.
movie received two stars from The Independent as well, stating that movie was «glaringly out of touch and painfully dated.»
«Most songs here have an underlying hesitancy, too preoccupied by their commercial aspirations to have any real fun,» the review noted, implying that Perry is attempting to pursue successes on the album.
A 5 out of 10 review from music outlet According to Clash, «the world has moved on.»
But with Sabrina Carpenter still holding a tight grip on the charts and Chappell Roan’s tour igniting Beatlemania-style scenes of adoration, «143» seems like a record from a bygone era. It’s difficult to see where this lighthearted but unsatisfying record fits into pop’s firmament, the article says.
Perry has received some positive remarks from fans on X, despite the brutal criticism.
Her spouse Orlando Bloom has also been there for her during the gloomy release; he encouraged her last week at the 2024 MTV VMAs.
