Review: Katy Perry drops ‘Woman’s World’ with its positive-vibes affirmation

POP/ROCK

Katy Perry, “Woman’s World”

“It’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be living in it,” Perry insists in this song with six writers (among them Lukas Gottwald, aka Dr. Luke, who was behind her blockbuster album “Teenage Dream” before his extended legal battle with Kesha). “Sexy, confident, so intelligent, she is heaven-sent,” Perry sings. “So soft, so strong.” With echoes of Madonna’s 1990s electro-pop, the praise continues throughout this synthesizer-pumped, positive-vibes affirmation of the obvious. It’s too bad the overblown video clip — including a post-apocalyptic sequence dotted with social media influencers — doesn’t live up to the euphoric sound.

Bright Eyes, “Bells and Whistles”

“Expensive jokes and cheap thrills cost a lot,” Conor Oberst blurts in “Bells and Whistles,” a full-bodied shuffle that’s also a reflection on New York City, halfhearted self-promotion and the joys and ugliness of a rock career. “Secondhand amps, a bent-up crash/The band sounds like an animal,” he sings. Regrouped with his longtime musical support from Bright Eyes — Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott — Oberst musters keyboards, glockenspiel, whistling and more to reflect on decades in the trenches of indie-rock.

Dua Saleh, “Want”

Desire conquers better judgment in “Want” by Saleh, who was born in Sudan, raised in Minnesota and now lives in Los Angeles. Reuniting with an ex who “threw it all away,” Saleh sings, “I know we probably shouldn’t but/Oh, I think I want, want, want to.” The synthesizers hint at vintage Janet Jackson, but the track deepens and gathers a marchlike heft as Saleh raps, coos, growls and exults in a liaison that’s unlikely to last.

Quavo and Lana Del Rey, “Tough”

Quavo and Del Rey, the rapper and the pop whisperer, collaborate as equals in “Tough.” It’s neither a rap with a pop chorus nor a pop song with a rap verse wedged in. Although Quavo has top billing, the song begins like one of Del Rey’s slow-strummed, minor-key ballads, as she muses, “Life’s gonna do what it does.” A ticking trap beat announces Quavo’s arrival, staking out a new melody (with help from Auto-Tune) to insist on a mournful stoicism: “Still shining like a diamond in the rough/Still shining, and that’s hard if you ever lost someone that you love.” Eventually Quavo joins Del Rey’s melody, but they’re still listening attentively to each other.

COUNTRY

Zach Bryan featuring Bruce Springsteen, “Sandpaper”

Ever since the rockabilly era, country music has feasted on rock’s leftovers. Bryan, the downhearted but prolific songwriter who has found a giant audience while ignoring Nashville’s bro-country clichés, makes his lineage clear on “Sandpaper” by duetting with none other than Bruce Springsteen. It’s a humble love song — “I ain’t scared of death/I’m scared of losing you” — that draws on both the steady-tapping beat of Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and Springsteen’s instinctive resistance: “They’ve been trying to smooth me out for 27 seasons now,” Bryan states.

Johnny Blue Skies, “Jupiter’s Faerie”

The country-rooted, genre-stretching songwriter Sturgill Simpson vowed to make just five solo albums, an arc that concluded with his 2021 concept album, “The Ballad of Dood and Juanita.” Now he’s found a loophole: a name change. His new album, “Passage Du Desir,” is credited to Johnny Blue Skies, and it’s deliberately eclectic, hinting at outlaw country, Memphis soul, countrypolitan and Pink Floyd along the way. The seven-minute “Jupiter’s Faerie” is a melancholy drama. Its narrator thinks about the ex he broke up with a decade ago, decides to reconnect, then finds out she’s gone, perhaps a suicide: “Chose to check out and move on,” he sings. “I guess the pain became the only thing/each and every day would bring.” Piano chords, a string orchestra and a hint of “A Day in the Life” from the Beatles build behind him as he realizes, “There’s no happy endings — only stories that stop before they’re through.”

JON PARELES, New York Times

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