Justice For “Never Really Over,” Katy Perry’s Last Brilliant Pop Single
This should have been her "Espresso!"
Katy Perry’s had a few ups and downs in her music career, but when she hits, it’s pure pop perfection. The clearest example is her 2010 masterpiece Teenage Dream, which spawned a record-breaking pantheon of No. 1 singles and has been widely hailed as one of the most important pop albums in modern music. In the years since, Perry hasn’t quite managed to reclaim the earworm-y elation of her greatest work... especially not on her remedial, paint-by-numbers-feminism belter “Woman’s World,” best summed up by Dazed as “female empowerment filtered through the lens of a Ryan Murphy show.”
But there was one recent single that deserved the same praise her Teenage Dream bops received, and it’s high time “Never Really Over” gets its flowers.
In the 2019 lead single for Smile, Perry was finally able to hit the same sweet spot that made her best singles such irresistible confections. The wordy, tongue-twister chorus added a new layer (and a bit of an enticing challenge) to what made “Last Friday Night” so impossible to not sing along to. The explosive bridge provided the same euphoric release as the one in “Teenage Dream,” and the confessional lyrics added an unexpected pathos Perry hadn’t managed to infuse so seamlessly into her high-energy singles since “The One That Got Away” and “Part of Me.”
I’m not deluding myself into thinking this is that hot of a take. True KatyCats have been championing “Never Really Over” for years. “And if I say ‘Never Really Over’ is her best lead single then what,” one fan wrote in response to the release of “Woman’s World.” “‘Never Really Over’ deserved its 10s but no one cared,” another added.
This isn’t to say that Perry hasn’t released other successful singles since Teenage Dream. Sure, “Roar” was infectious, if a bit tedious — as if it was AI-generated for a basic workout playlist. “Dark Horse” was catchy experiment in trap-pop, but side-stepped the belting ecstasy that Perry does best. But it wasn’t until “Never Really Over” that Perry truly seemed to tap into her highest powers one last time.
The greatness of “Never Really Over” is especially apparent following the release of Perry’s new single, “Woman’s World.” Heralded as her comeback to music after three years of silence, “Woman’s World” is a clear attempt to replicate the sound of Perry’s glory days, as she leans all the way into a massive chorus over thumping synths.
But at this point, the magic has been totally drained from the obviously calculated formula. The fire just isn’t in Perry’s eyes as she reads off a list of adjectives about how great women are. As one fan summed it up, it’s her “400th song about female empowerment” that feels “written by ChatGPT.” It’s not a woman’s world — it’s a robot’s algorithm.
‘Never Really Over’ seemed to have everything going for it, but it didn’t reach the chart-topping spot it deserved.
Compare these shockingly sparse and say-nothing lyrics to the specificity and loquaciousness of “Never Really Over,” a song in which Perry can’t stop spilling her emotions about a difficult gap in her relationship with Orlando Bloom.
Yes, “Never Really Over” seemed to have everything going for it, but it didn’t reach the chart-topping spot it deserved, forever separated from its Teenage Dream spiritual family. Perhaps the issue was timing. Perry’s return to massive pop belters arrived at a time when that sound couldn’t be further from the zeitgeist. In 2019, Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” and Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” were topping the charts, marking an era of glitchy whisper-pop that was directly opposed to “Never Really Over.”
It’s also true that Perry didn’t exactly have much goodwill going into the release of “Never Really Over.” Her last album Witness had been widely considered one of the lowest points in her career, and she seemed to be shifting her focus after joining American Idol as a judge in 2018.
Maybe if “Never Really Over” was released today instead of “Woman’s World,” the discourse would be different. Perry could have the song of the summer! But since one of Perry’s best songs got severely overlooked in 2019, I don’t think I’ll ever really be over it.
