2 September 2010
Party-anthem EDM-pop beds in for 2010 and beyond. Following in the designer loafers of designer loafers Flo Rida, David Guetta and Taio Cruz, here again is Katy Perry, America’s sweetheart of the spring-break mechanical-bull rodeo.
‘Teenage Dream’ aims less for saucy-postcard and more schoolgirl-diary, or at least a grown-up’s contrivance of same: “Now every February / You’ll be my Valentine / Let’s go all the way tonight / No regrets, just love” “We drove to Cali and got drunk on the beach / Got a motel and built a fort out of sheets” Tune-wise, the upper-register verses with those clunky lyrics sound try-hard, and there isn’t a strong chorus or hook to sell this. Superficial isn’t a problem for me, as long as there’s something under that surface or even if it’s skin deep all the way down. ‘Teenage Dream’, though, is just transparently hollow.
