When we first heard a preview of “Walking On Air,” one of the two songs fans voted on during Katy Perry‘s #KatyNow Pepsi tie-in just prior to the VMAs (the other being her trap-tastic “Dark Horse”), the song seemed a little…well, dull. As it turned out, after having heard the track in full at the Prism listening party last month, that couldn’t be further from the truth. (Sadly no, it’s still not a Kerli cover.)
The Klas Åhlund-produced song is a total throwback to the days of early ’90’s House — think C+C Factory and CeCe Peniston — complete with bright piano melodies, soulful backing vocals, ecstatic lyrics (“You’re reading me like erotica / Boy, you make me feel exotic”) and an explosion of a chorus strictly made for (gay) dance floor dreams.
While “Walking On Air” isn’t exactly a revolutionary sound for pop music itself (Annie and Bright Light Bright Light have been serving up this sound for a long time now), it is nice to hear a mainstream act provide this type of throwback dance floor euphoria without bowing to modern EDM beat drops and dub wobbles. It only makes sense that she’d tackle the ’90’s for her latest go-around — after all, she already gave us ’80’s with her saxophone-tastic “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” on Teenage Dream.
It’s also sort of the epitome of Prism itself — bright, light pop joyousness. Ready to touch the sky?
Prism will be released on October 22. (iTunes)