Jun 20, 2008  |  By: REBECCA ARMENDARIZ  | COMMENTS     

Katy Perry, a sort of teeny-bopper, Avril Lavigne-infused Lily Allen look-a-like, makes her debut with “One of the Boys,” a 23-year-old’s attempt at sounding like a badass, edgy teenager. However, she only manages to showcase her immaturity.

Her appeal is obvious — Perry has zeroed in on a look that all kinds will find sexy. The pale skin, dark hair, red lips and vintage high-waisted trousers mirror the style of a clothed Dita Von Teese. But like her style, the album pushes too many calculated boundaries, coming off manufactured and unoriginal.

The title track starts things off with a typical, inoffensive and catchy radio rock beat.  Her voice, a sweet combination of Gwen Stefani and a watered-down Alanis Morrisette, helps to mask the offensive and downright stupid lyrics.

The whole conceit of the song is that Perry doesn’t want to be seen as one of the boys. She wants whomever she’s pining after to see her as a pretty lady. In conveying that sentiment, however, she manages to use the worst stereotypes imaginable in characterizing both sexes.

“I saw a spider / I didn’t scream / ‘Cos I can belch the alphabet / Just double dog dare me / And I chose guitar over ballet,” she sings.

After seeing how classically beautiful she is and realizing her age, it’s tough to decipher whether she’s serious or exaggerating. But if it’s the latter, and it’s coming across so muddled, then what’s the point?

Then she heads into “I Kissed a Girl” (no, not a Jill Sobule cover), where Perry narrates her adventures in bi-curiousity. She blames her drunken state for the smooch, but says she liked it. 

The song itself actually has a pleasing, pounding and heavy drum and synth beat, and her declaration on the chorus sounds powerful and tough. But what does she mean with these lyrics?  “No, I don’t even know your name / It doesn’t matter / You’re my experimental game / Just human nature / It’s not what good girls do / Not how they should behave.”

Perry’s juvenility again helps her to make lesbians seem naughty and she degrades her kissing partner as a nobody.

GAY MENTIONS emerge again in her first single, “Ur So Gay,” a song that delivers no enjoyment, only confusion as to how anyone could be so shortsighted about its connotative meaning.

Perry sings to an ex-boyfriend, insulting him with cultural references to his H&M scarf and his addiction to MySpace. The chorus then hits: “You’re so gay / And you don’t even like boys.” What does that even mean?

“‘Ur So Gay’ was mainly written for a couple of different reasons — mainly because I got dumped, and it was a nice outlet, a way to be like, ‘OK, you wanna play?’” she told the Associated Press in March.

During the same interview Perry told the AP that “everybody gets the joke … and all [her] gay friends know what it’s about, too.”

Do they?

Perry will be embarking on the Vans Warped Tour this summer, a traveling festival that’s home to many pop-punk bands that appeal to young teenagers. What do they think when they hear “Ur So Gay,” an insult that pervades middle and high schools even today and is just a stepping stone to other acts of intolerance?

Perry strings words into trite nuggets for the rest of the album. On “Mannequin” she laments her emotionless boyfriend: “But you’re not a man / You’re just a mannequin / I wish you could feel / That my love is real.” The banality is thicker than her makeup.

To tally: Her voice, good. Around half of the songs’ melodies and instrumentation, good. Her lyrics and the reasoning behind them: inexcusable.