is still searching for her next “California Gurls.”
After ruling the summer of 2010 with that undeniable Snoop Dogg collaboration as well as “Teenage Dream,” Perry failed to find similar success this season with “Never Really Over,” released in late May as her first new solo music since 2017.
Nor is her latest single, “Small Talk,” which the pop diva dropped early Friday, the kind of slam dunk that she needs at this point in her career to get her music mojo back after two seasons of judging “American Idol.”
Cowritten and coproduced by singer-songwriter Charlie Puth (“See You Again”), “Small Talk” is, like “Never Really Over,” a deceptively bubbly breakup song. Perhaps Perry exes John Mayer, Diplo and Russell Brand should be taking note.
“Isn’t it weird that you’ve seen me naked?/We had conversations ’bout forever, now it’s ’bout the weather, OK,” sings Perry, going for sweet over bitter as she keeps a perky smile on her face.
Then, she coos, “I just can’t believe/We went from strangers to lovers to strangers in a lifetime.” But she doesn’t quite get to the real heart and depth of that sentiment.
But as with “Never Really Over,” “Small Talk” is solid, catchy stuff — the kind of pop confection that is easy to like on a casual level but hard to love.
Perry’s best single this summer remains her “Con Calma (Remix)” collaboration with Daddy Yankee, a bumping reggaeton jam on which she plays “California gurl” to his “Puerto Rican dream.”