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Katy Perry - 'Waking Up In Vegas'

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Fraser McAlpine | 10:16 UK time, Saturday, 6 June 2009

Katy PerryWhen the list of Most Very Horrible Noises In Popular Music is finally compiled, you can be sure that Katy Perry's swoops up into her upper vocal register will feature strongly. OK, possibly not as strongly as Madonna's attempts at rapping, or the introductions to hip hop records where rappers say who they are, or preposterously widdly-widdly guitar solos*, but it is definitely up there with the best/worst.

(. Given the song title, you could probably make the same one in your own head.)

It's odd, because she does have a fine voice, if a little mooey. And that's OK if you're belting out loud rockin' pop like Cher junior, but not so great whenever a little sensitivity is called for. Even on 'Hot And Cold', a song so good that hardened Katy haterz still bought it (Hi Steve!), the verses were plagued by her strange habit of popping into falsetto and then hyperpronouncing certain syllables, almost as if she was crying and singing at the same time:

"HuhYOO change your myiind like a guHERL changes clOHwethz"

The noise got so bad in her last single, 'Thinking Of You' that it became almost impossible to understand the verses, and when the chorus arrived, it sounded like she had become besotted with someone called Hugh. Possibly the fella who plays House in that TV show...

Thankfully, there's only one line in each verse of 'Waking Up In Vegas' which suffers from this strange affliction. The rest is either nasal purr - what? Cats have noses too - or the full throaty roar of the chorus. It's OK though, it's a good chorus. The kind of sharp, riffy chorus Avril Lavigne would be very happy to have a go at.

Which reminds me, the way Avril Lavine says "pose" in 'Uncomplicated' 'Complicated', that's gotta go on the list too...

Four starsDownload: Out now
CD Released: June 8th

´óÏó´«Ã½ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

* Someone should really write a randomised guitar solo creation engine. The speed at which the faster flurries of notes arrive is almost impossible to process in any case, so why not build something which creates that effect for you, the guitarist, and then you can focus your energy on creating quality riffage. You won't even need to set the key, just some idea of tempo and length of solo.

Over to you, boffins, and if you can come up with a way to fix Madge's rapping too, the Nobel Prize is yours for the taking.

"Notably bereft of melody in both verse and chorus."
"The chorus is big, brash, anthemic and you must shout along to it at the top of your voice."

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