Witness

About

In the almost four years between <i>PRISM</i> and <i>Witness</i>, one of pop music’s most consistent hitmakers went through a period of emotional, physical, and political transformation—she fell in and out of love multiple time, went on the 2016 campaign trial with Democratic nominee and presidential runner-up Hillary Clinton, and sported a head-turning platinum pixie cut as if shedding away a younger, more naive version of herself. She also entered her thirtie. Does one major life milestone matter more than another in this case? Probably not, but it might help explain the contours of Katy Perry’s fourth, and most divisive, major-label album—a self-described “purposeful pop” project with sinister synthwave edge, centered on a pleading, forthright hope that society will become better. Perry’s music has always had a liberatory streak, but <i>Witness</i> is most on the nose with its political intonation. “Chained to the Rhythm” (featuring Skip Marley) enlists Perry’s longtime collaborator Max Martin, synth-pop star and friend Sia, and the grandson of “Concrete Jungle” singer Bob Marley himself to spread a cautioning message about the walls we build to hide governmental atrocitie, all wrapped up in glistening euphoria. It gives the sense that Perry might be singing more for herself than anyone else—the artist felt her conservative Pentecostal past was retriggered by the shock of the Donald Trump presidency, and she felt empowered to act on her sadness not just personally but publicly. .

via Apple Music

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