ADRIAN THRILLS: Why we still get a kick out of Katy Perry!

msn.com:

The last time we heard from Katy Perry was when she brought her Witness tour to the UK two summers ago. With the Californian singer standing centre stage in a flashing LED bra, surrounded by Day-Glo dancers and giant flamingos, it was a dazzling spectacle — but one that felt disjointed and forced.The tour came after two albums, Prism and Witness, that had seen Perry edge away from bubblegum hits such as 2008’s I Kissed A Girl and 2010’s Firework.

On Prism, she wanted to be taken seriously as a songwriter; on Witness, she said she was making ‘purposeful pop’. Seeing her return to candy-coated froth the minute she went on tour was confusing.There’s no such uncertainty on Smile, her first LP in three years and her most coherent in a decade.