“Pop’s Queen Weeble, Katy Perry has made wobbling but never falling down her MO, belting out her chin-up, grin-on anthems tirelessly. Yet even she can’t power through 2020; her fifth album is coloured by a depressive period during which this all-American trouper found her work was no longer working for her. At first it seems she’s bounced back undaunted: galvanising opener Never Really Over thrums”
“The singer has a good time for the first time in a while on her fifth album”
“A record full of bounce and full-throated choruses that leave us wanting something more”
“Katy Perry only just toes the line of enjoyable on sixth outing Smile”
“Katy Perry’s bubbly, cliché-ridden pop feels especially unsuited for life in a pandemic. But despite all her garbled platitudes, she remains a master at executing chart-topping formulas.”
“Everything pretty much goes downhill after Smile's opening track.”
