Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (CD)

Blessed with a cheerleader's body, a girl-next-door face, and a drama-club queen's lust for the spotlight, Katy Perry presents herself as a curvy Teenage Dream, the ideal she puts forth on her 2010 sophomore set. Perry doesn't have great ambitions in mind: all she wants is the spotlight, and she'll follow the path of others to get there, raising eyebrows a la Alanis, strutting like Gwen Stefani, and relying on Britney's hitmaker Max Martin for her hooks. There's no question Perry knows all the rules in pop and follows them to the letter: she never breaks away from the expected lite club beats that transition from day to night without a hitch, or the chilly, stainless steel ballads designed to lose none of their luster on repeat plays. Perry acknowledges some shifting trends -- she salutes Kesha on "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)," replicates Ryan Tedder's glassy robotic alienation on "E.T.," and tellingly avoids ripping off Lady Gaga -- but these are merely accents to her One of the Boys palette. Perry is at her best when she's delivering sleek singles like "Teenage Dream" and "Hummingbird Heartbeat" with efficiency. [The Complete Confection, a 2012 reissue of Teenage Dream, featured three new songs and several remakes, including a version of "E.T" with Kanye West, a version of "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" with Missy Elliott, and an acoustic version of "The One That Got Away," plus a seven-minute Tommy Sunshine megamix of her six chart-topping singles.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi