Timbaland ft Katy Perry - If We Ever Meet Again - Single review

A collaboration between Katy Perry and cuddly teddy-bear-slash-producer Timbaland should be a joyous thing - Perry's all-pervasive suggestiveness fused to Timbaland's stock beats.

And that's what If We Ever Meet Again is - an almost seamless wedding of two distinctive artists - the musical lovechild of Perry and Timbaland. It starts with some guitar arpeggios - Katy's influence - and Timbaland on verse singing like he's swallowed the autotune machine. The chorus has a classic pop/rock hook attached which kind of redeems the forgettable verses.

I mean, can Timbaland really get away with using such chat-up line cliches as "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" in his lyrics?

As a single, it's not a triumph for either artist. It feels like they're both coasting - Timbaland mugging around in the video with his pretty collaborator bopping around beside him - just like most of his collaborations. Perry looks hot as usual in what looks like her most recent purchase from Ann Summers.

But even after all that, it's a likeable enough joint effort by the two, even if it doesn't scale the heady heights of sexual suggestiveness like I Kissed A Girl or even Timbo's work from the first Shock Value album.