Review Summary: Unexpected, risky, honest and brilliantly addictive record.
Katy Perry is one of the biggest pop stars ever and «Witness» is her forth full-length album in some time, following a string of highly coveted singles. It's a release that dips into everything from deep house to iconic disco to even indie electronic music (true) for something that's compelling and oddly timeless. First time I hear the release, I find it interesting that I can't really peg it to any particular time period, as is the case with many dance-related releases. It feels heavy and serious in places and almost lo-fi in others, and that's part of why it works.
The other reason it works is because there are fifteen tracks that diverge and converge. It explores a lot of different ground, but at the base of every track is something that makes you want to shake your hips a bit.
Title track «Witness» opens the release with many of the aforementioned qualities as chopped-up vocal samples flit around chuggy piano beats and pitch-bent synth cuts for just over four minutes. «Hey Hey Hey» is even better, lurching along with what sounds like South Korean dubstep soundtrack samples, lap-steel guitar, simple but effective keyboard melodies and some wicked lo-fi drum hits that punctuate the track at just the right moments.
Meanwhile «Roulette» drops some gated vocal stutters and some subtle, but highly-inspired beat programming, reminded about discoball glory, while «Swish Swish» blends some squirty old-school deep house sounds in alongside some juicy rhythms before turning in a quiet latter section that is downright lovely. In terms of sheer dancefloor fare, the big hitters arrive around the middle of the album with «Chained to the Rhythm» and «Bon Appétit». The former rocks some disco synth sweeps and plenty of sonar-blip shimmers while the latter flat-out bangs with a dark and gritty bassline and slippery/crunchy trap beats, including best parts from leading rules as Skip Marley or trio Migos.
The release stumbles a smidge towards the end of the release with the slightly goofy sound effects-laden track «Pendulum» and «Save as Draft» completely breaks the feel of the album with its tripped-out piano/analogue synth downtempo shuffle. Even those tracks have plenty to enjoy, though, and the album closes out nicely with the stretched-out arpeggios of heart-calming «Into Me You See».
As a whole, «Witness» is one of those fun albums that sounds great whether you're in the mood to move or just sitting down and listening on headphones as you ride to work on the bus. It's not trying to absorb any current popular trends, and instead sounds like a little bit of everything from the past 20 years of popular music. A thrilling, but heartfelt affair.
