Katy Perry: One Of The Boys : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

"I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf/While jacking off listening to Mozart," Katy Perry tells her metrosexual ex on "Ur So Gay." Risqué words, coming from the daughter of two Christian pastors who only let her listen to gospel tunes as a kid. Now 23, the L.A. singer bucks the WWJD'ers with a debut full of mall-punky, grrrl-power tunes produced by Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and Dr. Luke (Avril Lavigne). But her attention-grabbing doesn't feel very rebellious: On the New Wave-y club single "I Kissed a Girl" — a vanilla recounting of her chick-on-chick exploits — she sounds like the type who makes out with her BFF just to get a dude's attention. And when she's not acting out, she's a total snooze. "Mannequin," a lament about a guy who's too stoic ("You're not a man, you're just a mannequin!"), recalls Cher's Eighties catalog. And the acoustic ode "Thinking of You," which compares an unrequited lover to "an Indian summer in the middle of winter," is generic Dawson's Creek schlock. Yes, Perry has a heart, but it sounds like her bustier's too tight for her to use it.