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It takes less than a minute for Katy Perry to go from “there’s a pounding in my head” to “do it all again” on “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” the fifth single from her blockbuster 2010 album Teenage Dream. In between is a gradually escalating series of post-debauchery images whose explanations exist in a fog of tequila and bad decisions. A stranger in the bed. An unconscious DJ. Pink flamingos in the pool (she’s most likely talking about the lawn ornament, but I like to have fun and imagine Pink Flamingos in the pool). The shitshow is so exaggerated (“warrants out for my arrest”) it’s impossible to take seriously. The stakes fall away, and we somehow know she won’t get in trouble.
“Last Friday Night” takes place on Saturday morning, amid a mess of consequences from half-remembered actions, and Perry wakes up not in shock but with a feeling of pride: “I’m pretty sure it ruled — damn!” Then the chorus rushes in, explaining (almost) exactly what happened with skyscraping exuberance. Is it her memories flooding back? Is it an account by someone else who was there? Is it an omniscient narrator filling in the gaps in Perry’s memory? We never know, and the ambiguity lends the song a certain mystery we don’t usually expect out of early-2010s electro-trash party songs.
Teenage Dream’s title track sounds a lot like “Last Friday Night.” Most Katy Perry fans would argue the former is better, and it’s certainly a lot sleeker in execution. The bridge of “Last Friday Night,” where a small army of Perrys chants “T.G.I.F.!” with almost military stoicism, feels shoehorned in — as does an awkward rhyme with “ménage à trois.” And it’s never clear if the song is describing the aftermath of a house party, a night on the town, or both, though maybe that’s just Perry’s memory fucking with her. But while a ton of songs do romantic sweep as well or better than “Teenage Dream,” it’s hard to find a party song this descriptive (nor with such a perfect slap-bass accent).
“Last Friday Night” is a product of that weird post-Timbaland, pre-EDM period when Lady Gaga stalked the catwalk at the center pop. What she said went, so naturally “Last Friday Night” came packaged with a video that was twice the length of the song itself, starring celebrities such as Kenny G and sung by Perry in a one-off persona as Kathy Beth Terry, the dorkiest girl in high school. But does “Last Friday Night” really even need a video? It weaves its own narrative, one ridiculous image after the next, until it unfurls into one of the most compelling story-songs from the last decade of pop music.
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Feature image: Kathy Beth Terry Facebook
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