KATY PERRY - NEVER REALLY OVER

The book says we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.

Apparently Katy Perry has read that book too.

Before we get to the meat and potatoes of “Never Really Over”, ask yourself what the last great Katy Perry song? With all due respect to the Nicki collaboration, it’s been a minute. But this Zedd-produced number seems likely to break that streak.

As far as ‘I’m still not over you’ songs go, this one is especially anthemic and triumphantly melancholy. The lyrics detail the raw desperation and confusion that broken relationships leave in their wake, juxtaposed with an absurdly catching beat that’ll with borrow its way into the deepest recesses of your mind. She jokes about stalking her ex online and inviting them over to repeat the loop over never fully calling it off.

Throughout her career, Perry’s songs have been punctuated by a rising sonic climaxed paired with her soaring vocals. “Never Really Over” turns this trend on its head, as the track’s most memorable moment is the impressively tongue-tied post-chorus that follows the big crescendo. 

“Two years, and just like that/ My head still takes me back/ Thought it was done/ but I
Guess it’s never really over,” Perry sings on the chorus. Echoing a sentiment most everyone can relate to.

It sounds a lot better when she does it though.

KATY PERRY - NEVER REALLY OVER

“Never Really Over” is the first we’ve heard from Perry in two years. It’s also her first single since announcing her engagement to actor Orlando Bloom, who has to feel a little uncomfortable listening to this track, right?

The past is never dead. It isn’t even the past.

As Katy might say.

(For those of you interested in that sort of thing, there’s also a Philippa Price-directed music video for the song.)

Calvin Paradise is not any one thing. The half-hearted vagabond and forgetful luddite currently resides in Los Angeles and how he spends his time is none of your damned business.