Listen up Katy Kats because Katy Perry is back with her new track “Never Really Over.” The California Gurl dropped the track and music video, directed by Philippa Price, at midnight. The Zedd-produced single sounds like it has a little of each of her past eras, creating this well-rounded, full Katy Perry sound.
The music in this new track is definitely different from her past releases, but it has callbacks to each of her released records. Her vocals have always been powerful, but here they give off hints of her voice on One of the Boys—that raw emotion filled sound that filled the 2008 record. With a fun, upbeat tempo the music has a flair of Teenage Dream, but grown-up. Think of the beats in “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” and “Last Friday Night.”
Prism was Perry’s metamorphosis, which had a mix of fun and spirituality in her songs. “Never Really Over” definitely has this mix, with its lyrics about the intricate thoughts in her mind regarding love and heartbreak over the infectious, electronic-tinged instrumental. Which leads to her last record Witness. That record had a heavy electronic influence in its sound compared to her previous records, and this single also has an electronic influence thanks to Zedd.
This is also the second project we’ve seen from Perry and Zedd now, as the two released “365” earlier this year.
With her first solo release in nearly two years since the release of Witness, Perry is back with this new style, a new attitude, and a new confidence. After the release of her last album, Perry said she suffered from some depression over the reactions to it. But Katy Kats continue to love her “Unconditionally” and she’s grown, used it as a learning experience, and bounced back.
Speaking with Apple Music’s Beats 1’s Brooke Reese (the full interview will air on Sunday, June 2 here), Perry explained the music she’s putting out is about what has happened in her life at some point, not necessarily in the present moment. She said the song, and the experience she’s singing about, shows how powerful the mind is.
“I mean, you can be in the best position of your life and in the healthiest place in your life and then you get one text message that just makes you fall to your knees. Or you get one comment on social media or you get one like and you’re like, here comes that wave of nostalgia from the past,” Perry said.
But the release of this new track doesn’t mean an album is coming anytime soon.
“I think there are less rules about how you have to release music,” Perry said at YouTube event Wednesday night, answering a fan’s question about an upcoming record. “We’d like to just put music out, and if there is a reaction—like, a good reaction, or a desire for more—there could be more.”