It’s been one year since Katy Perry released her polarizing opus of “purposeful pop.” Although ‘Witness’ missed the mainstream, it’s a misunderstood masterpiece primed for delayed impact.

“If I lost it all today, would you stay?”

That bold question opens the title track of Katy Perry’s fourth studio album Witness, released a year ago on June 9, 2017. Those words hold a new meaning now. After Witness came out, the superstar grappled with her first bout of chart struggles when the album didn’t add another No. 1 single to her impressive streak and floundered in its attempt to repeat the mainstream success of its platinum predecessors. A year removed from the impossible expectations that bogged it down, Witness rises above the commercial and critical disappointment that eclipsed its merit.

While launching the first single, the socially conscious “Chained to the Rhythm,” at the 2017 Grammy Awards, Perry offered a hint about the then-unnamed album, calling it “purposeful pop.” Given the themes of “Chained,” people conflated that with Perry ditching the double entendres and party-ready puns for political bops. Mind you, purposeful and political are not the same word.

Not every performance can or should feature “persist” armbands and projections of the Declaration of Independence. We should know by now that Katy Perry doesn’t do the same thing twice, whether it’s on stage or in song. She’s not the type to fully commit to one particular theme either. (For starters, she threw back on the vibrantly colored wigs for the Prism era after declaring that persona dead.) It would be uncharacteristic and, honestly, unwarranted of her to release 15 pop songs tackling the current social climate, don’t you think?

For her first post-election expression, Perry branched out of her Max Martin comfort zone for a handful of tracks, and the evolution toward less formulaic radio-ready songwriting is apparent. Still, even with the differing musical sensibilities spread around the record, Witness listens like a cohesive concept album instead of a collection of potential singles. By that metric, Teenage Dream, the career-defining history maker the public holds as her gold standard, is the Quinn to its Daria.

If you metabolize the words and themes of Witness, you realize what she actually meant by “purposeful.” For what feels like the first time, she poured her heart out across an entire album and into songs of personal liberation and exploration. She had her heart broken, she grew up a bit, and she matured her artistic viewpoint just a tick north of the darker second half of 2013’s Prism.

“Hey Hey Hey” and “Power” expand her brand of pick-me-ups with mid-tempo kiss-offs for anyone who underestimates a woman. “Bon Appétit” and “Tsunami” showcase a sexual liberation in which Perry’s in control of her sexuality rather than playing into the male gaze. “Bigger Than Me” and “Mind Maze” trace the mental acrobatics one engages in during a period of growth. “Miss You More” delivers a knock-out vocal and career-best ballad. Where she begins the album in search of that elusive thing called intimacy, she locates it on the vulnerable closer “Into Me You See.”

Many reviews of Witness were fast to fault Perry’s punny lyrics, which have been in play since day one. It’s true that she tosses out phrases like “LOL at all your limits” and “you’re ’bout as cute as an old coupon expired.” But like Kacey Musgraves, clever wordplay has always been what makes her music unique. And for what it’s worth, “I live off the echoes of your I love yous,” the opener of the thumping club banger “Déjà Vu,” might be one of the most beautifully haunting pop lyrics of 2017 next to anything on Lorde’s Melodrama.

These songs were purposeful to her and, in turn, she hoped listeners beyond her loyal fandom could mine meaning of their own. But the mainstream audience didn’t connect with the cotton candy-free album, propagating the incorrect belief that it was somehow subpar. It’s failure to make an instant impact (despite its No. 1 bow and respectable streaming numbers) isn’t unfounded, though. These weren’t the empowerment anthems or party starters radio made you believe Katy Perry solely amounted to. There was more weight — purpose — behind the songs.

When the album rolled out amid a thorny path of mini-scandals, the project — and Perry — took a beating from the public. Her hooks weren’t as contagious as they used to be. Her lyrics not as sharply memorable. Her hair was too short, too blonde, too Miley — her bleached buzzcut, seemingly more jarring than Felicity’s controversial trip to the salon in Season 2. How dare she not keep making “Teenage Dream” for the rest of her career! How dare she push the boundaries of her sound and perspective! There was a critique for everything.

You could say she should have introduced the era with “Hey Hey Hey,” “Witness,” or “Act My Age” (a criminally undervalued Target-exclusive bonus track). You could say she should have made fan-favorite standout “Roulette” a single. You could say she shouldn’t have done this or should have done that. But you can’t force it. If the world’s just not getting it, there’s no magic fix you can pull out of your hat to win them over.

Katy Perry had something to say, and few people listened long enough to get the message. Ironically, the message was one of connection: Being heard, hearing others, and the intimacy of understanding. She drove this mission statement home with Witness World Wide, the four-day Big Brother-esque YouTube live stream that found the singer meditating, crying in therapy, and hosting knowledge-based dinner parties with celebrities and activists.

Again, Witness World Wide garnered mixed reviews. Some commented that Perry’s personality came off as brash when she spoke to her team, the people she’s most comfortable with, which only proves the point she sought to make. No matter how transparent she makes herself, she’ll always be subject to scrutiny. In tearing down the concept of celebrity with round-the-clock accessibility, she underscored the fatal flaw in the takedown culture that renders Taylor Swift a “snake” and “cancels” a smattering of other stars day in and day out on Twitter.

During the extensive hours of Witness World Wide, she listened and learned. She asked questions. She shined her light on others. It brought the whole idea of the album full circle: Taking a breath to be in the moment and opening your eyes to the things we lose sight of in the shuffle of hectic humanhood. It had nothing to do with her haircut or how disjointed she felt volleying between Katy Perry and Katheryn Hudson. If you were really paying attention, you could see that it wasn’t entirely about her at all.

Sometimes the strongest bodies of work from the biggest voices and most reliable chart toppers falter with public approval. Back in 1992, Madonna experienced backlash for the unapologetically sexual Erotica, and Christina Aguilera’s Bionic remains every bit of “ahead of its time” as its artist claims it to be. There’s unlimited examples of musicians refusing to bend to fit the trends and venturing into underrated territory. Katy Perry’s Witness joins an elite group of pop albums whose power will only be appreciated in time.

In hindsight, the album accomplished the goal of setting Katy Perry free from needing to live up to her record-setting run of hits. She’s still searching for the healthy balance between being taken seriously as an artist and churning out the mindlessly fun confections that made her name, but Witness ultimately helped bridge that gap by toeing the line. No matter which direction she takes with her next album, it will undoubtedly be another sight to witness.

Witness is available to stream on all music platforms.