Three years after her last album “Witness”, Katy Perry released her new album “Smile’’. The promotion for the 5th album came alongside the pregnancy of her first daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, with fiancé Orlando Bloom. Katy Perry had two babies in a roll: her actual baby on August 27th and her new “baby” album on August 28th.
Since May last year, Katy Perry has been releasing singles separated from any album, something she usually doesn’t do. Katy normally releases songs that will be in a new album soon. She started with “Never Really Over”, then she released “Small Talk”, and later in the year “Harleys in Hawaii”. At the beginning of 2020, she released “Never Worn White” when she announced her pregnancy, and in the music video she shows her baby bump.
In May, with the release of “Daisies”, recorded during quarantine, was when Katy Perry told her fans that for sure there was a new album coming up. Of all the new singles, only “Small Talk” and “Never Worn White” were kept out of the new record. After the release of the album title track “Smile” in July, we finally got the 12 songs of Katy’s 5th album.
- The Album: 1-2
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“Never Really Over” has a catchy chorus that doesn’t get out of your head. Couldn’t be more pop or more Katy Perry. The song talks about a relationship that doesn’t seem to end, every time they break up, they get together after a while, and it gets hard to get over that person.
On the second song, “Cry About It Later”, Katy talks about forgetting all problems for one night to enjoy life and party. She talks about drinking and being hungover the next day, and specially doing that to fix a broken heart. She also makes a reference to her famous song “The One That Got Away” in the verse: “I think I’m ready for a brand new tattoo”, because on the song from the “Teenage Dream” album she talks about a lover which she did matching tattoos with and later got hers removed.
- The Album: 3-4
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Following the “crying” moment, the next song “Teary Eyes” talks about being in a bad place in life, feeling like you are losing yourself but still pretending things are doing okay. Even with the fast beat, “Teary Eyes” talks about facing difficult problems, like losing a lover, while saying you should keep dancing even with all the bad moments.
The 4th song “Daisies”, released a couple months earlier, is one of the most touching and special songs of the album. Besides being the name of her daughter, Daisy, the song talks about chasing your dreams even if people try to discourage you. “Told them your dreams, and they all started laughing/ I guess you’re out of your mind ’til it actually happens/ They told me I was out there, tried to knock me down”. Even with all the trouble, she will keep trying until they cover her in daisies, that is, until she dies.
- The Album: 5-6
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“Resilient” maintains a good pop sound, a little bit calmer but the background beats are very strong. In this song she talks about overcoming her problems and being resilient, which means adapting well to difficult times. She talks about being brilliant and growing through cracks. The next song, “Not The End Of The World”, also talks about dealing with problems but not losing hope and throwing “fears in the fire”.
- The Album: 7-8
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The title track “Smile” is an energetic, positive and fun song. Katy brought a really pop happy song with a great beat. When she released the album, the singer said she wrote it when she was going through a bad depression, and the song talks about finally smiling and being grateful. “I wrote the title track from the album when I was coming through one of the darkest periods of my life and had lost my smile. This whole album is my journey towards the light – with stories of resilience, hope, and love”, said Katy Perry on Twitter.
“Champagne Problems”, the 8th song of “Smile”, is believed by some fans to be about the problems Katy Perry faced in her relationship with Orlando Bloom. The couple broke up and got back together a few times, and in the song she talks about being in a good place in a relationship, in which all the problems are very small.
- The Album: 9-10
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Apart from most songs in the album, “Tucked” is about having a fantasy with someone and keeping it in your head in secret. The song is a fast-upbeat disco-dance. On “Harleys in Hawaii”, the next track, Katy brings a soft song about spending the day riding a motorcycle with her lover at the Hawaiian paradise.
- The Album: 11-12
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“Only Love” is the second slowest song in the album. It’s a calm, emotional song talking about all the things she would do if she had only one more day to live, like calling her mom and saying sorry. She said: “Let me leave this world with the hate behind me/ And take the love instead.”
Katy Perry finishes the record with “What Makes a Woman”, which is the perfect closure for “Smile”. The calm, slow and soft song has a beautiful meaning as Katy questions what it means to be a woman and says that a woman can be many things. She also dedicates it to her daughter and to herself, as in the end she says “There it is, Katheryn”, so this last line serves as a closing to the entire album, with Perry reflecting on how she got her groove back.
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The article above was edited by Laura Okida.
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