Guide
Bandaids review: After years of watching Katy Perry chase trends that never quite fit her, “Bandaids” feels like finally getting to hear the artist she’s been trying to rediscover. This isn’t the neon bubblegum pop or the forced EDM experimentation we’ve heard recently. Instead, it’s a guitar-driven track that strips everything back to raw emotion, and honestly, it’s the most compelling thing she’s released in years.
The song dropped in early November 2025, right in the middle of her “|Lifetimes Tour”, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It emerges off the back of her relationship with Orlando Bloom ending after nearly a decade together and you can feel every ounce of that heartbreak woven into the track. But what makes “Bandaids” truly special is that it never feels like she’s begging for sympathy or trying too hard to prove something. It just exists as a beautifully melancholic reflection on love that didn’t work out.
Song Analysis (Bandaids Review)
Right from the opening notes, you’re hit with shimmery, almost metallic-sounding guitars that give the whole track this reflective quality. The production sits at around 94 beats per minute, which puts it in that perfect middle ground where it’s not quite a ballad but definitely not upbeat. It just floats along with this moody energy that matches the lyrical content perfectly.
What stands out to me is how much space the production gives Katy’s voice. Instead of drowning everything in layers of synths and electronic drums like her last album did, the team here clearly understood that less is more. The verses stay minimal, just Perry’s vocals over gentle guitar work and subtle atmospheric touches. Then as each section builds, the instrumentation grows with it, but never to the point where it overtakes the emotion she’s trying to convey.
The pre chorus sections are where you really feel the song starting to open up. More layers come in, the drums get a bit more prominent, and there’s this sense of rising tension that makes the chorus hit exactly right. And when that chorus does arrive, it’s fuller and more anthemic without ever feeling overproduced. Her vocals sit right at the front of the mix with harmonies adding depth underneath, and the whole thing just breathes in a way modern pop often forgets to allow.
I also love that the mixing keeps dynamic range intact too. Quiet moments feel genuinely intimate, and the louder sections have impact because they’re contrasted against that restraint. In an era where everything gets compressed to death for streaming platforms, hearing a pop song that actually uses volume and space as emotional tools feels refreshing.
Structurally, “Bandaids” doesn’t reinvent anything. It runs just over three minutes with a pretty standard verse, pre chorus, and chorus setup. But the way Perry and her collaborators use that framework creates something that feels hypnotic rather than repetitive. The song opens quietly, almost conversational, then builds through each section until you reach this emotional peak in the bridge.
That bridge is particularly effective because it directly references her 2019 song “Never Really Over,” creating this throughline in her catalog that acknowledges how relationships can haunt you even after they end. Then the final chorus brings in vocal ad libs that feel spontaneous, like she’s working through the emotion in real time rather than hitting predetermined notes.
Perry’s vocals sit mostly in her comfortable mid to upper chest range, with some powerful belting moments in the chorus that land around the fourth octave. But what’s notable is that she’s not showing off technically. There are no runs or vocal gymnastics for the sake of it. Every choice feels like it serves the song’s emotional truth, and that restraint makes the performance so much more effective.
The song’s in A flat major, which gives it this bittersweet quality that never tips too far into sadness or false hope. Combined with the tempo and the 4/4 time signature, it creates familiarity while still feeling deeply personal.
Lyrics
Verse 1
Hand to God, I promised, I tried
There’s no stone left unturned
It’s not what you did, it’s what you didn’t
You were there, but you weren’t
Pre-Chorus
Got so used to you letting me down
No use tryna send flowers now
Telling myself you’ll change, you don’t
Band-Aids over a broken heart
Chorus
Tried all the medications
Lowered my expectations
Made every justification
Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow
Band-Aids over a broken heart
Verse 2
On the bright side, we had good times
Never faked our pictures
We were perfect ’til we weren’t
Now we’ve got too many splinters
Pre-Chorus
Got so used to you letting me down
No use tryna send flowers now
Telling myself you’ll change, you don’t
Band-Aids over a broken heart
Chorus
Tried all the medications
Lowered my expectations
Made every justification
Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow
Band-Aids over a broken heart
It’s not that complicated (Uh-huh)
To ask me how my day is
I’m flatlining trying to save this
Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow
Band-Aids over a broken heart
Bridge
If I had to do it all over again
I would still do it all over again
The love that we made was worth it in the end
Oh yeah, oh yeah
If I had to do it all over again
I would still do it all over again
The love that we made was worth it in the end
Oh yeah
Chorus
Tried all the medications (All the medications)
Lowered my expectations (Oh-oh)
Made every justification (Oh)
Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow
Band-Aids over a broken heart
Meaning (My Opinion)(Bandaids Review)
This song is about the kind of heartbreak that creeps up on you, not the sudden kind you see in movies. It’s about feeling let down over and over, even when you keep trying to make things work. The line about “Band-Aids over a broken heart” really hits it’s like Katy Perry is admitting they’ve been putting in effort to fix something that can’t really be fixed. They’ve lowered their expectations, made excuses, tried everything, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough.
At the same time there’s a bittersweet look back at what was good. Katy remembers the love they shared and the moments that were worth it, and even suggests they might go through it all again because it mattered. But there’s also a clear sense that it’s time to face reality: too many small hurts and disappointments have piled up, and holding on only makes it worse. It’s a song about finally seeing things for what they are, accepting the pain, and knowing that letting go is sometimes the only way to heal.
Listen To “Bandaids” By Katy Perry (Bandaids Review)
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.
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