The Exit Wound

Regret only works as pop music when it’s been processed enough to feel universal rather than private—when the hurt has been alchemized into a hook. The One That Got Away is Katy Perry doing exactly that: a song about the person you should have kept, built around a bittersweet production that makes melancholy almost pleasant to sit inside. Young love, a shared tattoo, a what-if that runs all the way to the fade-out. It landed harder than I expected, which is either a testament to the songwriting or a sign that I should probably examine some things.