The album garnered generally positive reviews with critics praising its lyrics for being more "mature" and personal, while others considered Prism to be more formulaic than her previous material.

She began with a process she deemed "slow cooking", which consisted of recording random "fragments of ideas" into her mobile phone's dictaphone application.

After those sessions, she went to Stockholm, where she worked with Scandinavian record producer Max Martin, to do what Perry called "put[ting] the ice on the cake".

Perry described writing sessions with McKee as "emotional abuse", adding that they argue over the "best lyric", as if they were fighting in a boxing ring.

[1] "Walking on Air", the album's second promotional single, is an early 1990s-inspired deep house-Eurodance-disco song, inspired heavily by CeCe Peniston and Crystal Waters.

[19][20] "Unconditionally", Perry's personal favorite song on the album and second official single, is a "soaring" power ballad with an "epic chorus".

[21] Jason Lipshutz from Billboard noted that the song includes a "woodblock percussion" as well as "a dramatic bass line" and deemed it the album's "most mature offering".

Furthermore, he called it "an ode to love that looks past all flaws" and stated that the song acts as a "compellingly grounded predicate" to the title track from Teenage Dream.

[22] "Dark Horse" is a song with ample influences of trap,[23] grime, hip hop,[17][24] and "Southern rap-techno mashup" genres.

[18] With "Double Rainbow", produced by Greg Kustin and co-writer Sia, Perry was allowed to "dump pent-up emotions" and "get things off her chest".

Lipshutz called it a "straightforward pop-rock offering" and described its guitar hook as "kicky", adding that the song also includes a "Melting Daft Punk-esque vocoder breakdown".

[17] Halperin stated that in the song, Perry sings the "hooky" line: "Please fasten your seat belts and make sure your champagne glasses are empty".

[17] While talking about each Prism track, Perry mentioned that "By the Grace of God" was the first song she wrote and recorded for the album back in November 2012 while she was in her "dark" phase.

[30] Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast described "It Takes Two" as a "sweeping ballad" which allowed Perry to "show off a full-throated belt that so many of her more bubbly tracks mask".

[32] On July 29, 2013, a golden truck driving in Los Angeles revealed the album's title as Prism and that it would be released on October 22, 2013.

[34] On August 20, Pepsi revealed a partnership with Perry, in which fans were given the opportunity to unlock song titles, lyrics, and snippets from Prism by tweeting the hashtag #KATYNOW.

[citation needed] In a press release on August 20, 2013, Pepsi announced a partnership with Perry to promote her fourth studio album Prism: a social "tweet-to-unlock" voting program, encouraging fans to tweet the hashtag #KATYNOW in exchange for song titles and lyrics.

[44] Its album cover was unveiled on September 6, 2013, on a Jumbotron during Good Morning America, and was shot by American photographer Ryan McGinley.

[49] "Roar" was serviced to mainstream radio stations on August 10, 2013, as the album's lead single, and its digital release followed two days later.

[77] Additionally track's producer Max Martin hinted possible remix release featuring Canadian rapper and singer Drake.

[80] Jon Dolan from Rolling Stone gave the album three out of five stars, writing that "Perry and her longtime collaborators Dr. Luke and Max Martin often go for a darker, moodier intimacy à la high-end Swedish divas Robyn and Lykke Li.

[87] Nick Catucci from Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+ and stated that "Katy's superpower, now more than ever, is minting songs so relatable that their insights quickly scale up to inspirational..... Now she grasps that she's making the mainstream, not just swimming in it".

[90] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic, Alexis Petridis from The Guardian, and Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine all also gave the album three out of five stars.

[86] Mesfin Fekadu from ABC News deemed the tracks "likable", but felt the album lacked "some of the fiery fierceness and excitement that dominated Teenage Dream".

[91] James Reed from The Boston Globe felt Perry "always seemed like the pop star who knows precisely what she does best" and called the album "an unabashedly fun listen".

[93] Trent Wolbe from The Verge gave an overall 4/4 rating and praised Perry's ability to "wrapping hyper-specific emotions into a new format that everyone can relate to".

[1] At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Prism was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, but lost against Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour.

Prism has the highest first week sales for a female pop artist since Madonna's twelfth studio album, MDNA.

This represented the smallest sales dip for a number one album in the United States since the August 2013 release of The Civil Wars.

[100] The album has been certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has sold 1.74 million copies in the United States as of August 2020.