Katy Perry – “Dressin’ Up”
Published March 20th 2012
Filed under Reviews
Katy Perry’s Dressin’ Up leaked online last night. The leaked version is in low quality but it still gives the idea of the whole song. I’m a bit concerned about the lack of bass in the first verse so I’m hoping that’s due to the way the song was re-encoded to remove the watermark.
The intro to Dressin’ Up is identical to the demo. The vocals on the first verse are more produced and have a slight reverb effect on them. Midway through the first verse, the beat kicks in and unlike the demo it slows the track down with a dubstep effect. The demo had a fast pace which really added to the song.
By the time the chorus hits, the song gets back on track and redeems itself with a punchier, louder production than the demo. The chorus is going to sound amazing in clubs. The only real difference vocally in the chorus comes at the end when the last “dressin’ up” is put through a vocoder.
The second verse is much, much better than the first. Although it’s not faster, the production is a lot edgier and like I wrote in a previous blog, it sounds similar to E.T.
The middle eight is a mixture of good and bad. It doesn’t start off too well. There’s a lot of vocoder used and it slows the song down until Katy sings “beads of sweat drip down your neck,
breathing deep, gaining speed, about to peak, trembling, trembling, trembling” which speeds up suddenly and gives the song momentum as it leads into the final chorus. The faster half of the middle eight has become my favourite part of the song.
Overall, I’m really happy with the finished version of Dressin’ Up, as long as the high quality version has some bass in the first verse.
You can listen to Dressin’ Up below:
Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection will be officially released on March 26th.
Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
Published March 19th 2012
Filed under Reviews
Katy Perry’s Wide Awake, one of the new tracks from Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, has leaked online. It’s an electro-pop ballad written by Katy and Bonnie McKee.
The full version of Wide Awake is as good as I expected from the leaked clip last week. The only downfall of the song is how repetitive it is. The phrase “wide awake” is repeated a numerous amount of times throughout the song.
You can listen to Wide Awake below:
Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection will be officially released on March 26th.
Madonna – “I Fucked Up”
Published March 17th 2012
Filed under Reviews
Madonna uploaded a new MDNA album track called I Fucked Up to her YouTube channel. It’s a vulnerable ballad about her divorce from Guy Richie.
It’s not the strongest track from what I’ve heard so far of MDNA, but it has a nice sound even if the lyrics can be a bit cheesy at times.
You can listen to I Fucked Up below:
Madonna – “Superstar” Preview
Published March 14th 2012
Filed under Reviews
Madonna’s been uploading previews of tracks from her upcoming album, MDNA, to Youtube. Nothing so far has really grabbed my attention so far but I like the sound of Superstar which she uploaded yesterday. Superstar is written and produced by Hardy “Indiigo” Muanza and Michael Malih. It features vocals from Madonna’s daughter Lourdes.
It’s a summer-sounding track that might make a good single at some point. I love the lyric:
You can have the password to my phone, I’ll give you a massage when you get home
You can listen to the clip of Superstar below:
MDNA is out March 26th.
Katy Perry – “The Complete Confection” Previews
Published March 13th 2012
Filed under Reviews
The previews of Katy Perry’s re-release of 2010’s Teenage Dream, entitled The Complete Confection, has been released online. The new additions to the album include the number one single Part of Me, the Tricky Stewart produced Dressin’ Up, the Bonnie McKee penned Wide Awake and Tommie Sunshine’s Megasix Smash-Up of the six singles from the original release of the album.
Dressin’ Up has probably been the most anticipated song by many since it leaked online sometime last year. The leak was a small clip of the first verse and chorus. It’s believed that at the time, the rest of the song had yet to be written. The finished version of Dressin’ Up keeps the basics of the original demo but has a more polished production which almost takes away from the edgy, rawness of the demo. Had I not heard the demo, on first listen to the finished product, I’d have called it E.T. Part II. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the chorus is given an extra punch to become a bit of a stomper and leaves the original demo vocals untouched. The vocals on the verses have been given backing vocals but they sound a bit muffled under the production. Overall it’s still an excellent track and it will no doubt be a huge hit for Katy – and we’ve still yet to hear the middle eight.
[audio:dressinup.mp3]Wide Awake is the other previously unreleased track. It was apparently originally recorded by co-writer Bonnie McKee. It’s a gorgeous electro-pop ballad that also cries for a single release – like almost every song that hasn’t been a single yet from Teenage Dream.
[audio:wideawake.mp3]The Complete Confection will be released on March 26th through Capitol Records.