Smile Track Review
L: This week we decided to take on a song that we don’t actually like — Katy Perry’s Smile. We promised not to be a mean-spirited blog, but we do want to be honest and thoughtful in our responses to music. With that, we begin.
C: Let’s open up with the lyrics. It’s a song about finally being happy, and it’s very straightforward about it.
L: I think this is a song that self-declares a comeback but without without any of the musical firepower it takes to actually have a comeback. These lyrics are very, very weak. For example, “Yeah, I’m thankful, scratch that, baby I’m grateful” which she repeats twice in the first ten lines of the song. It’s like she found a hook and she overuses it within 15 seconds.
C: Totally, the chorus is pretty flimsy. The “scratch that” line makes almost no sense, given that grateful and thankful have virtually the same meaning. It adds nothing to the song.
L: So, given that these are synonyms, she did not actually need to scratch anything. Musically, Smile is generic. The bridge just sounds like someone muffled the song.
C: Right. I think it’s trying to go for sort of a brassy, fun vibe, but it ends up extremely bland. It doesn’t have the vibrance it badly needs for this song to work (as older Katy Perry songs do). Another reason it doesn’t work is because it’s attempting to be about something. Other Katy Perry songs didn’t make you think too much, so you could just enjoy it. Smile tries to invoke some emotion, but doesn’t pull it off.
L: I think we should always welcome the maturing of an artist, but this was a poor effort. It’s not fun to bash a song, but I think it’s important to identify the difference between a good song and a bad song (our opinions, of course).
Obviously, we do not want to give hate to Katy Perry or her fans. You just listen to whatever music makes you Smile.
Ratings Scale: If Teenage Dream is a Katy Perry 10/10, Smile is a 4/10.
C + L
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