Is Teenage Dream the only good album from Katy?

[Kim Petrus 304]

Teenage Dream is not a good album. The singles are the best, and some other songs are good too. The marketing and storytelling genius. But come on, you can’t say a album is good if it has peacock on it 

One of the boys is her best work imo

particularly this song called you’re so gay 

[jackweller 300]

I would argue so. Even though Prism is often put on par with TD, it’s quite uneven in my opinion and there’s a lot of fillers. I recently listened to TD and none of her other albums come close. Every TD song is a hit. I haven’t listened to Prism in a long time but I always remember it being overly long and felt like some songs could’ve been left off

[Controversiaga 9,460]

The first two albums are her best for me.

[Noir 15,185]

I actually like Prism (minus Roar) and some of Witness. Never listened to her debut or Smile

[Plastic Flower 3,942]

I don't consider any of her albums apart from TD to be entirely good. She has really good standouts but some songs shouldn't be there. I have to say that they're always very cohesive.

[Monstermilo 3,827]

yes, but TD in terms of omnipresence and success is unmatched, i dont even like katy.... but she had 5 number ones on the hot 100 off that album - her and michael jackson are the only ones to achieve that and whether u like her or not, none of her peers have come close to that kind of success for an album cycle. 

her overall legacy has been diminished by every other project she had but no one can deny TD's success

[27monster27 11,566]

Witness is her best album (dying on this hill)

Followed by Smile (also dying on this hill)

[StrawberryBlond 14,213]

Yes, Teenage Dream is head and shoulders above all her other albums. It's not perfect but its her most solid collection and is an example of pop in its purest form. But I also think One Of The Boys is decent, Witness just misses the mark (it isn't as bad as I remember looking back), Smile is also just as similarly under the mark but its ratio of good/bad tracks is better and Prism is painfully mediocre and childish and I have no idea why it's her most critically praised album. But the way things are going...143's going to take its place soon. Katy used to at least have solid singles but she hasn't even had them to fall back on for 3 albums now.

[Jack3257 688]

OOTB: Solid debut album.  Don’t really listen to any of the songs though, but have I Kissed a Girl, Waking Up in Vegas, and Hot n’ Cold on a few playlists.

Teenage Dream: Has some of the best pop songs of the 2010s on it.  There were 5 number one singles, a decent pop ballad that failed to break the MJ record, and then two more chart-toppers on the deluxe version.  However, I think the rest of the tracks are underwhelming.

Prism: For me it’s the opposite of Teenage Dream.  I love some of the album tracks (such as Walking On Air, Legendary Lovers, and Unconditionally); but I’m not really a fan of the hits.

Witness: Bad single choices led to an unsuccessful era, resulting in the entire album being slept on.  Some hidden gems (Roulette, Tsunami, and to a lesser extent Chained to the Rhythm), but not what a lot of people were expecting after her last two albums.

Smile: The rollout was such a mess.  Had Never Really Over and Harleys and Hawaii been pushed properly, and come out within a reasonable timeframe for singles intended for an album, Katy could have maybe recouped some of her career.  Once again some decent songs (Daises, Cry About It Later, Champagne Problems, and Not the End of the World), but half the album is forgettable to the point I couldn’t even name the tracks.  Also, it bothers me how blatant of attempt it was to make the title track Roar 2.0

143: Someone please send help to Katy…

[StrawberryBlond 14,213]

12 hours ago, Jack3257 said:

Prism: For me it’s the opposite of Teenage Dream.  I love some of the album tracks (such as Walking On Air, Legendary Lovers, and Unconditionally); but I’m not really a fan of the hits.

Witness: Bad single choices led to an unsuccessful era, resulting in the entire album being slept on.  Some hidden gems (Roulette, Tsunami, and to a lesser extent Chained to the Rhythm), but not what a lot of people were expecting after her last two albums.

Smile: The rollout was such a mess.  Had Never Really Over and Harleys and Hawaii been pushed properly, and come out within a reasonable timeframe for singles intended for an album, Katy could have maybe recouped some of her career.  Once again some decent songs (Daises, Cry About It Later, Champagne Problems, and Not the End of the World), but half the album is forgettable to the point I couldn’t even name the tracks.  Also, it bothers me how blatant of attempt it was to make the title track Roar 2.0

143: Someone please send help to Katy…

Agree with all of your post but particularly these points.

I thought Prism was TD-lite. It was an attempt to recreate that album but made it more sanitised and kid friendly (apart from Birthday) to maximise profits. To a certain extent it worked, it led to 2 of her biggest ever hits, one of her best selling albums and her most successful tour but it was for sure her least interesting, personal and mature album. Again, I don't know why critics ranked this her best album (63 on MC).

Witness's only decent singles was CTTR and even then, it isn't on the level of her glory day singles. But to be honest, the entire album was lacking in hit material and if I had to pick singles not based on artistic credibility but purely on commercial viability, the chosen singles are exactly the ones I would've picked too as they had a catchiness, contained relevant rap features and were going to produce viral music videos (for better or worse). Hey Hey Hey was a massive mistake, though. I would've picked Roulette too. I would've totally put her bonus tracks on the standard edition and swapped them out with maybe Deja Vu and Pendulum.

Smile absolutely suffered significantly from a bad roll-out and single choices. Agreed, NRO and HiH were 2 of her superior singles (and some of her best ever songs) and should have been released in the appropriate amount of time pre-album. Problem is, this album was never intended to exist, Witness unexpectedly flopped so Smile was created to make up for it and there was some water testing with NRO, Small Talk and HiH as (t "droplet" singles (to quote her team's phrase) when really, they shouldn't have been released until the album was ready to go. And when it came to the official pre-release singles, every single one of them were the wrong choices, just bland. Out of the remaning songs we hadn't heard yet, I would've made the singles Cry About It Later, Champagne Problems and Only Love (that performance of it she did with Darius Rucker was one of her best ever and it would've been really respected if it had been officially released as a single and duet). But, during the height of the pandemic, there were limited promo options and no chance to tour, so it could never have experienced its full potential anyway.

And yeah, if WW and Lifetimes are the best of the bunch so far, this isn't looking good. If rumours of her releasing an acoustic album next are true, I think she'd better cancel the idea of further singles, promo and tour of this album and just move on asap.

[Jarvin 1,299]

Teenage Dream and One of the Boys are absolute classics just like the Fame and Born this Way. If you deny that you’re an idiot. Katy was HUGEEEE. And Teenage Dream is one of the best pop albums I think. Don’t let cancel culture affect your memory. She made some bad decisions but come on girls…. Don’t act a fool.

[Guest]

One of the Boys is a classic, and the most sonically interesting record she has.
Teenage Dream is by far her best, I do agree.
I enjoy Prism for the consumable pop album that it is.

Witness and Smile have their flaws, but I actually like both of those albums on the whole. I appreciate Witness for what she was attempting to do and other than Teenage Dream (the song), it has my favorite single she's released with Chained to the Rhythm. Smile has Tucked, which is also in my top 5 songs - and I can't think of an outright bad song on that album. Even Even What Makes A Woman has its charm.

I don't think she has a bad album currently released.

Edited August 15, 2024 by Agunimon

[dit 45,668]

Her debut album is probably her best actually and then Teenage Dream is good but it would have been better if it felt like a one off attempt at purely commercial bubblegum pop. I think all of us thought that Teenage Dream was her sort of sarcastically doimng the whole girly bubble gum pop and that she would revert back to her rock pop sound with KP3 but instead she doubled down and it took away from the beauty of Teenage Dream imo