Just as Britney Spears gave us “Work Bitch” to coincide with the arrival of her Las Vegas residency, Piece of Me, now, too Katy Perry has brought us “When I’m Gone” to promote hers. Which means emulating Britney is good enough for Perry when she’s not throwing shade about head-shaving and mental health. The residency, called Play, is taking place at Resorts World Las Vegas (a.k.a. somewhere not as legit as one of the major hotels like Planet Hollywood, Caesar’s Palace or MGM Grand). And maybe there’s some subconscious nod to the title of her new single, “When I’m Gone,” in that the running joke about anyone who decides to do a residency in Vegas is that they’ve summarily agreed to enter the twilight phase of their career. Of course, Spears changed that stigma immensely with Piece of Me (even though you’ll still never catch Madonna performing in Vegas for more than a few nights—if that). Perry could very well be aiming to do the same.
Except her stint on the Vegas scene won’t be even nearly as long, so far only scheduled for two legs in January and March of 2022, after kicking off December 29th and December 31st of ’21. Nonetheless, she aims to make an impression. And perhaps eventually prove to us that it’s “never really over” if things go well enough with her show and she wants to sign on for another stint. Although the single that would eventually make its way onto 2020’s lackluster Smile was released in 2019, it feels as though Perry is rebooting the theme. Or at least, a variant of the theme—being that post-corona life is all about variants. For, like “Never Really Over,” “When I’m Gone” addresses the notion of how a love one assumes is “finito”—or rather, a love one wants the feelings thereof to be—actually isn’t. Because, as the truly wise know, the past is always present. Even if it’s no gift at all to be perpetually haunted by an old flame, as Perry warns her would-be ex that’s just what’s going to happen to him (sorry to gender the pronoun, but Perry is quintessentially straight, despite her retroactively offensive hit, “I Kissed A Girl”).
The accompanying lyric video (the actual one won’t arrive until January 10th as part of Perry’s cross-promotional blitzkrieg, this time with College Football instead of the NFL) features an industrially-slanted aesthetic, complete with the recognizable robotic dog that’s synonymous with the Black Mirror episode, “Metalhead.” And since Katy Perry is all about acknowledging dystopia (at least she sort of was during her “purposeful pop” peak in 2017), one imagines she’s all too familiar with the image from the show they’re apparently no longer making because life really did become too much like Black Mirror. The robot dog could also easily signify how the memory of Perry (or whoever) is capable of ceaselessly stalking a former lover, no matter how hard they try to hide from it.
Perry also proves the point that not every song has to be autobiographical as she clearly can’t be referencing Orlando Bloom (as she did on “Never Really Over”) when she taunts, “Thought it would be easy/Easy to forget me/Let go of the memories/Now your bed is empty/And you’re wakin’ up sweating/I’m still in your wild dreams.” That last turn of phrase might invoke a furrowed brow from Taylor. Then again, some hackneyed terms are bound to creep in when one has such a robust team of co-songwriters, including, in addition to Alesso, Alida Garpestad Peck, Rami Yacoub, Nathan Cunnigham, Marc Sibley and Alma Goodman. That’s a lot of shared royalties. But then, if Olivia Rodrigo was willing to share most of hers from Sour, why shouldn’t Perry for one song?
Plus, we all know that just when the public has decided to forget Perry or write her off as a critical flop (as was largely the case with Witness and Smile), she’ll return to collect more profit. Hence her lyrics applying not only to an ex who thinks he’s really going to be able to forget her, but also to the world at large. Which is why she sings so confidently and defiantly, “When I’m gonе, I’m never really gonе/You think you’re movin’ on/But it won’t be for long, you’ll see/No one’s gonna feel like me.” More to the point, “Me on top of you/Touch you like I do/No you’ll never forget.” Such a Scorpio sentiment—and yes, Perry just turned thirty-seven on October 25th in time to take the stage for her first major tour outing since Witness: The Tour (featuring many of the same songs that will also be performed for Play).
Perry’s self-assurance of her own uniqueness only intensifies as the song continues, and, much to the dismay of feminists, she loosely quotes Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona script (“You’re still searching for me in every woman. You’ll always seek to duplicate what we had. You know it.”) when she says, “You’re chasin’ the danger/It’s just in your nature/Look for me in strangers/All these pretty faces/No one can replace it/I’m always your favorite.” And, despite her highs and lows, Perry proves again and again that she’s still capable of being a Billboard chart favorite as well. Accordingly, when we think she’s gone, she’s never really gone. A.k.a. never really over. Sort of like capitalism.
