Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream': Review of Reviews

Depending on which critic you ask, Perry's sophomore album is either fabulous, formulaic, or the kind of thing you should forbid your kid to hear

Katy Perry recently released her second mainstream full-length album, Teenage Dream. Photo: YouTube

Best Opinion:  Rolling Stone, Chicago Tribune, Spin

Pop star Katy Perry's second mainstream album, Teenage Dream, hit shelves this week. The record's already ubiquitous single, "California Gurls," which debuted in May, sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for six weeks — inevitably prompting the question: Is the rest of the album as irresistible? Reviewers weigh in:

The album recalls Gwen Stefani in her SoCal prime:Teenage Dream proves Katy Perry is "a true California gurl,"says Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone. "Miles ahead" of her breakout record, it's "the kind of pool-party-pop gem that Gwen Stefani used to crank out... full of SoCal ambiance and disco beats." Thanks to Perry's "clever songwriting," top-dollar production and a saturation of "eighties beats" and a "Daft Punk filter-disco house sound," I can easily call this one a winner.

Clever? Try "formulaic": Katy Perry seems like "the kind of diva whose flashy trash

fashions and offbeat humor promise something more interesting than formula pop," says Greg Kot in the Chicago Tribune. Unfortunately, that's "exactly what she dishes out" on Teenage Dream. Its "girls-gone-wild cliches" and "Frankenstein-like productions" render the music devoid "of personality, presence, surprise." 

Parental advisory required: If nothing else, says Mikael Wood in Spin, "Teenage Dream won't disappoint parents looking for reasons to worry about their kids." The song "Last Friday Night," for instance, "recounts an evening of nonstop naughtiness — think streaking, skinny-dipping, and ménage à trois-ing." Another cut, "'Peacock' deploys a double entendre even Ke$ha might find crude." Of course, you should expect nothing less from "the woman who sealed her transition from Christian-pop piety to electro-glam abandon" with a song about kissing a girl.