UR so familiar but still fun
Katy Perry
One of the Boys (Capitol)
ESSENTIAL "One of the Boys"
The title of Katy Perry's debut, out today, claims she's "one of the boys," but it's unclear exactly who the 23-year-old singer-songwriter really wants to be. As the album flits around the pop map - punk, bubblegum, dance - the California girl sounds like an amalgam of the female singers for which her collaborators have already worked magic.
Traces of Alanis Morissette's sour melodicism and vocal affectations crop up on the earnest "Thinking of You." Several songs conjure the cutesy/sincere antics of Avril Lavigne. Pink's take-no-BS sneer haunts the bratty Butch Walker power-pop contributions - including "Thinking" and the title track on which Perry boasts of her ability to hang with the guys by belching the alphabet but longs to have her femininity recognized. And take your pick of the pop tarts who come to mind via the fuzzy-synth booty bouncers that Swedish hitmakers Dr. Luke and Max Martin helped create for optimum dance-floor bite.
Perry, who wrote or cowrote all the tracks, has got pipes, looks, and sassy spirit to spare. On the kiss-off "UR So Gay," she zings an overly metrosexual ex by walking the line between offensive and cheeky: "You're so gay and you don't even like boys" goes the chorus. Ditto for the spunky "I Kissed a Girl" (not the Jill Sobule song).
Careering from tart-tongued vixen to rough-and-tumble tomboy to woeful lonelyheart may reflect her real life, but it makes for a thematically bumpy ride. [Sarah Rodman]
Katy Perry plays on the Warped Tour at the 
