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Katy Perry returns with first solo work since Witness album
Katy Perry is ready to turn the page. The American pop star had a less successful period in her career with her admittedly quite disappointing fourth album Witness which was released in 2017. She still went on a world tour and is busy working as a judge for American Idol. In the meantime she also recorded collaborations with Calvin Harris, Daddy Yankee and the excellent ‘365’ with Zedd. Perry is now ready to do things on her own again with a new look and an updated sound. This is ‘Never Really Over’!

For ‘Never Really Over’, Perry works with German-Russian dj Zedd again who produced and co-wrote the tune. It also samples the track ‘Love You Like That’ by Norwegian pop artist Dagny, who also receives a writing credit for the tune. Perry returns to a more poppy sound without influences from hiphop. ‘Never Really Over’ leans towards electro pop and serves an excellent hook that would not have sounded out of place on her Teenage Dream album, yet the production is definitely more 2019 than 2010. The punchy post chorus is easily the highlight of this track that follows a classic pop song structure and excels at this type of build up. In the lyrics Katy describes a relationship that ended, but from which she still can’t properly shake loose. We have all been there, no!?

In the video we see Perry going into a retreat to get over said relationship. Of course she did not do so without at least a couple of goofy scenes, but it is easily her most accomplished music video in a few years (if you don’t count the brilliant visuals for the other Zedd collaboration).