Katy Perry ‘Unplugged’ – Better Plugged Back In

Becky Bain | November 16, 2009 6:07 pm

After reviving Unplugged this summer, MTV has signed off on the release of first recording from the latest run—MTV Unplugged: Katy Perry is out tomorrow in standard and deluxe CD/DVD editions. View the trailer above, plus the re-imagined “I Kissed a Girl” after the jump. Anybody missing Auto-Tune right about now?

“I Kissed a Girl” unplugged

While Idolator has distinguished itself with articulate arguments against Katy Perry’s recordings (and photography), we think she deserves a little credit for exploring her songs from a new vantage point.

In Unplugged‘s best moments, her voice is surprisingly strong when you peel away the electro-style (over?-) production, and it’s refreshing to see Perry perform without wearing a ridiculous costume or riding a phallic stage piece.

Reviving “I Kissed a Girl” as a loungy come-hither tune was actually kind of rewarding, and not the worst thing to do with an overplayed song that everyone knows frontwards and backwards already. The former Katheryn Hudson‘s off-kilter personality still shines during the song breaks, and on a few songs, we get to see Katy showcase her skills as a guitarist, something she probably should show off more often than her legs.

But the problem is that not enough of her repertoire works without the studio embellishments. Even though the unplugged “Waking up in Vegas” sneaks in some nice vocals from her band, her own voice is—what’s the word?—”pitchy.” “Ur So Gay” sounds pretty much the same unplugged as it does on the album, though the whistling during the chorus is sorely missing. “Brick By Brick” suffers the least since there’s no other version to compare it to.

Are any of these songs going to replace their glossy originals? Not really, but if you wanna decide for yourself, you can watch all the clipshere, or wait til Friday November 27 when MTV airs a half-hour version of the taping. (Even by conservative definitions, that probably counts as airing music on the channel.)

Here’s one more which we’ve renamed “Waking Up in Starbucks”:

“Waking Up in Vegas” unplugged