I have quite a few friends wondering what I think about Lady Gaga’s monumental new album, Born This Way. At first I thought it was a little odd that they were so interested that they’d ask me for my opinion, especially considering it’s Gaga, who makes pretty straightforwardly mainstream pop music, we’re talking about and these people probably enjoy her just as much no matter what anyone else says. But she sure is an enigma, arguably being the world’s biggest pop star with the most devoted fanbase at the moment and all. It’s too interesting a (extra)terrestrial phenomenon for me not to thoroughly probe. It is, after all, easily 2011′s most anticipated album and a nice break from all the indie here on the blog. So here I go with a track by track review of the special edition of the album, containing 17 tracks on disc one instead of the regular 14 of the standard edition and six tracks on a bonus CD. We’ll dive right into the track by track process first and at the end I’ll write a more cohesive sum-up because I can tell you right now that with 17 tracks and Gaga’s sprawling persona there are so many strings to pull here that not zooming out for the bigger picture would do the album a disservice.
Track-by-track review
1. Marry The Night
An atmospheric and dramatic opening of the album with Gaga and churchlike synths that later erupts in the chorus that finds some middle ground between a modern arenapop anthem and a classic middle-of-the-road AOR soundtrack. Although I’m only mildly impressed by this song I must say it’s the perfect opener, introducing a major musical theme of rock vs. pop fusion and still leaving the horizon wide open enough for the rest of the album to yet be an open-ended story.
2. Born This Way
”Don’t be a drag, just be a queen.” Gaga set out to make the ultimate LGBT anthem with the lead single and title track. I totally get the comparisons to Madonna’s Express Yourself that everyone’s making but that reference has been a little overused. Born This Way must be drawing inspiration from many other places you couldn’t put your finger on, because it ain’t Express Yourself that’s making us think we’ve heard this song before. There’s a little ecstatic gospel and some high-spirited musical stuff going on here. Sonically production-wise there’s also A LOT of stuff going on here. Cramming five hundred and thirtytwo thousand sounds into a wall of sound in this modern four-on-the-floor banger seems like a contraproductive sore for the ears. But hey, if any LGBT person feels validated by that kind of sonic backup in addition to the lyrics I won’t be cranky. It’s uplifting so it’s too bad it couldn’t be interesting at the same time.
3. Government Hooker
If I want to hear a modern artist croon and sound like the artwork to Antony And The Johnson’s The Crying Light looks, I’d take my refuge to the artsy world of Wild Beasts, thank you very much. Or into to the maudlin world of Antony for that matter. Government Hooker begins with Gaga semi-soprano-ing her way through the intro before it’s all compensated and contrasted with dropping a modern, mean and ultra-clubby electro groove. The song itself sounds like it was scrapped from M-Dolla’s Hard Candy and refashioned to Gaga’s perverted view of the perfect pop song. Somewhat entertaining.
4. Judas
The beginning with the vocal hook of oh-oh-oh’s and ”I’m in love with Juda-as, Jud-as” was so instantly catchy and loveable that we forgave any resemblance it might have had to Bad Romance. So why then did Gaga & Co. have to spoil it by once again reminding us of her biggest hit to date? Instead of coming up with something new, by more or less taking the ”Gaga-ooo-la-la” bit from said song and putting a repeated ”Judas! Juda-as!” in the sequence following that very promising intro. The epic and dramatic beat, inspired by the ongoing electrohouse craze, introduced in the first verse, however, makes up for that last misstep. Gaga shows the way up to the chorus with ‘tude and sass: ”I’ll break ‘em down! Break em’ down down!”. Then: another misstep. You’ll notice during the course of this album that the preferred structure is electrohouse-y and clubfriendly verse followed by sky-clearing, light, catchy, uplifting chorus that more often than not aims for the middle of the road. Judas is an exception to Gaga’s hinting at her favouring of hairy 80′s metal on this album, despite featuring bikers culture galore in the video. The chorus is however light and catchy. The first part of it is sweet but sounds half-arsed, phoned in and rushed, like they just want to get it overwith so we can get to the part we’ll all be waiting for in front of the radios this summer. That’s right. The wonderful vocal hook. From the beginning of the song. Judas pretty much stands and falls with this hook. Judas is uneven, but its peaks are high enough to render it one of the stronger tracks on the album.
5. Americano
Clichés abound in this Alejandro surpasser. But I love the hysteric shouting of the title in the chorus and the carneval-themed style of this relentless cheese-fest.
6. Hair
This is Gaga’s modern take and reimagination of an 80′s teenage girlroom anthem. It sounds like a collaboration with The Killers. For better and for worse.
7. Scheiße
It’s a tiny bit silly at times, I’m not totally buying the humour in Gaga attempting to speak German. I do, however approve of Gaga attempting to conquer Berghain and convert the hipsters in there to her pop religion with this flirt with a Berlin beat. I don’t think she succeeded but nothing ventured nothing gained. She gained my approval with this very catchy and not-so-dark-and-mean-as-you’d-think chorus.
8. Bloody Mary
The weaker companion to Judas in Gaga’s attempt to blaspheme. It takes a lot stronger song than Bloody Mary to make this work in 2011 but the Madonna reference and thematic variation in the album is duly noted.
9. Black Jesus + Amen Fashion
This special edition exclusive is another blasphemic statement with fashion as its purpose. I think all the songs add something to the splintered whole that the special edition Born This Way is, but standard buyers aren’t missing out on anything essential here.
10. Bad Kids
This homage to her freaky New York club scene past sports a gorgeous 80′s-baby chorus. Club kids of today and with a fetisch for the mainstream have themselves a new inspiration from someone’s who’s been in the game for a while. Sometimes you forget that Mother Monster is only 25 years old. Maybe it’s because we see her future in the inspirational M-Dolla already. Either way it’s one of the best tracks on the album, if not my favourite, actually. Time will show which tracks will stick out and which I’ll rank as my favourites.
11. Fashion Of His Love
THIS is something the standard edition buyers are missing out on! It continues the 80′s vibes from Bad Kids and suddenly, for the first time in the album, we’re in a streak of peaks! Less club-friendly than the formerly mentioned track but just as worthy an 80′s girlroom anthem as Hair, this is a sweet and triumphant pop soon- to-be hit. If you’ll allow me to suggest the next single. Here it is. I would’ve guessed it was if it wasn’t a special edition exclusive.
12. Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)
Unfortunately we leave that two-song streak of peaks with a rather passable pop anthem that seeks to bring the arena to a fancy car on the middle of a desert road in dusk.
13. Heavy Metal Lover
It’s steady but why are the electro chainsaw synths not even trying to imitate a metal power chord? And where’s the Gaga in this? The title promises a lot, considering the recurring heavy metal biker theme we’ve seen surrounding this album, but it falls flat.
14. Electric Chapel
This song title brings to mind the part in the video to Guns ‘N Roses’ November Rain where Slash comes out from a lonely chapel on the prairie and delivers the guitar solo of the song. Electric Chapel does feature some actual riffing guitar but as is customary with this album it’s left to be purely ornamental to get the rockin’ rebel message across. Some MOR AOR songwriting customs won’t save this forgettable song either.
15. The Queen
One of a few songs where Gaga wear her glam rock influences in general, and Queen influences in particular, readily hearable on her musical sleeve. At the same time it sounds like Cher ca the year 2000 plus minus two years. At least the chorus does. Like one bad Cher B-side ca the year 2000 plus minus two years. Or maybe you could think Song For The Lonely. And not even a pure, genuine guitar solo in this synthetic pop fest of an album can save this highly dissatisfying song.
16. Yoü And I
Many a critics’ favourite song, Yoü And I is, a bit surprisingly, straight down to the bone a glam rock song. It’s the Born This Way equivalent of Speechless from The Fame Monster. A refreshing and very well-produced and well executioned live instrumentals addition to an electronically inclined album. Darn shame that it’s so stereotypical it stings in your ears.
17. The Edge Of Glory
Another critics’ AND fans’ darling already, The Edge Of Glory ends the album on the same note as it begun with Marry The Night, but on a quite stronger note it should be added. If the lovechild between Céline Dion’s I Drove All Night and Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark is your sick, pedophilic wet dream then feast your ears on this. The rest of us normal folks can still enjoy this and agree that it’s one of the best tracks, uplifting as it is in all its sky-clearing glory, and a great way to end a monumental special edition of an album.
Bonus disc
1. Born This Way (Country Road Version)
With this version Gaga intends to dig deeper into the Americana mine and attempts to hit that gold. Unfortunately this is fool’s gold and such a stereotype it becomes nothing more than kitsch. Gaga may be all about over-the-top kitsch but there’s gotta be substance to backbone that kitsch for that song to stand out. This is a rather uninspired, or perhaps TOO inspired, rock revision of the big hit.
2. Judas (DJ White Shadow Remix)
DJ White Shadow has collaborated on quite a few tracks on Born This Way and this first of two remixes on the bonus disc flirts with all sorts of electronic dance music genres like techno, trance, electro, house and dubstep. He covers Judas in all of these club-friendly references and loses both the original song and the sense of where he’s going with this mess.
3. Marry The Night (Zedd Remix)
The buzzsaw synths serving as the bass groove for electrohouse and bloghouse have just grown gnarlier and more shabby-chic over the last few years. This latest sound from Zedd could very well be my extreme-snoring neighbour, I couldn’t tell the difference. It’s just one long murmuring that has never heard its own funk and electronic dance music roots and if it had it would probably have forgotten about it a long time ago. This is a sad example of upstart producers having no idea what they’re doing. Hey, they love their own music, that’s fun. Just don’t expect me to come and praise you for your ”talent”. This is ok rave, and nothing more, and no one’s gonna pay for ”ok”. This far I was glad I didn’t pay for this bonus disc.
4. Scheiße (DJ White Shadow Mugler)
Here we go. The first more than decent remix. Exactly why DJ White Shadow has chosen to replace ”Remix” with ”Mugler” I’m not quite sure of, I guess it’s just an homage to the fashion designer Gaga and he probably love. I do know that this IS a pretty fashionable, reasonably hip and special rave remix of the already more-than-just-friendly-with-the-club Scheiße. A 9:35 monster fusion of electrohouse and UK garage / bass music that really helps sell Gaga’s cheesy German impression and those dorky synth stabs. I prefer it over the original.
5. Fashion Of His Love (Fernando Garibay Remix)
Fernando, thank you for understanding that this is too good a song to be spoiled with insincere club beats. Not that you avoided putting it into more of a sweeping, big dancefloor context but the pop shines through beautifully in harmony with the crowd-pleasing beat. While I still prefer the original this is a nice version for variation.
6. Born This Way (Jost & Naaf Remix)
Is there anything more entertaining than Dutch duos? They seem cursed to have awkward and funny names. Kraak & Smaak. Jost & Naaf. Anyhow, this remix is exclusive to the international edition bonus disc and let’s keep it that way. This one is rather pointless and only for Gaga completionists and those who have a kink for anything sounding like it comes from the glory days of 2006-2007 bloghouse, like yours truly. Ehrm.
Full-text, overviewing album review
Gaga has risen to be one of the biggest, if not currently the biggest and hottest, pop stars of the world. There’s gotta be some extremely heavy weight to pull after the huge success of both The Fame and the follow-up EP or mini-album of sorts, The Fame Monster that both reached the charts, the radio, the clubs and most importantly a cult-like bunch of fans. If The Fame was much about her ambition for her up-and-coming fame and its adherent culture and The Fame Monster was sort of the aftermath where she slowly moved towards other subjects as well, then Born This Way is the work of an artist on what could very well be the top of her career. She can now harvest the fruits of her well-earned fame and focus on making pop music that isn’t so much about pop culture itself. This is exactly what she’s doing on Born This Way and in the wake she’s shedding the risk of becoming too ”meta” or repeating herself.
This album is actually more down-to-earth than her previous album despite the unescapable presence of the mind-bending electrohouse club vibes pulsing through it. It sees Gaga embracing the pop and rock music that is positioned in the middle of the road, belonging on AM radio and that is part of the modern American cultural heritage. It seems that rather than transforming it and elevating it to her trendy, kitschy levels to sell it to the hordes of fans as the new black she is approaching the kind of music we today consider cheesy on its own terms and updating it to work together with her grand, all-encompassing vision. There’s no calculation to meet her own stylistic trendsetter ego’s will or to please the market. Neither critics, her little Monster fans or the general radio listener have shown any signs of demand for this type of music. Yet. Maybe with Gaga’s help sounding like you’re in the middle of the road won’t seem so phoned in or uninspired any more. She approached many of the songs on the album with a deep love and respect for the popular music of the 70′s and 80′s that she grew up with and this sincerity should be acknowledged.
Inescapably, there’s bound to be a sense that this ground is a little too trampled and treaded on throughout history when creating radio-pop songs as simple and catchy as Marry The Night, Hair, Highway Unicorn or The Queen. Gaga is an artist of such weight and cultural significance that she can’t afford to produce songs that are flat and simply ”ok”, that fall short of her stylistic grandeur and might well instead be passed on down to artist several tiers below Gaga’s level. When I first saw the album cover of Born This Way I was baffled by the genius move of the world’s possibly biggest artist and most powerful trendsetter to create an album cover so cheesy, ugly and unworthy of her highly stylized persona. It is a fantastic showcase of that she actually is aware of how hardly scrutinized and controlled her, or any musician’s, artistic outing is and to break that spell, that barrier, that illusion, is something I will forever respect her for. I don’t even mind that she played it to her fans and ditched that eye-sore for a less distinctly cheesy album cover on the special edition (of course the one used in this post), which is the edition most of her fans will have bought by now.
On first listen I was disappointed that the music didn’t reflect the album cover’s representation of the distance she had to the fingerspitzengefühle virtues in modern pop music. Or that it didn’t sound nearly as heavy metal-fetischist as it would have seemed. The album cover is the hint of intelligence, perspective and the lonely-kid-fucked-upness of which she claims to be the guiding star. The music itself is sincere, no frills 100% pure pop, for better or worse. When there are too few shiny pop gems to take with us to her future best of albums and the club aspect of things could’ve been more transgressive than merely contemporary, it’s the sincerity, love and passion that shines through that saves Born This Way from becoming sub par. And while I would’ve still wished that Gaga & Co. would’ve gone for quality rather than quantity in this enormous pop album I still think it’s a quite enjoyable album back to back, without examining each single track as closely as I did in the track-by-track review above.
More than anything Born This Way is an excellent example of the migration between the huge radio/TV/internet masses and the sensitive, trendy, urban club kids where Gaga has won lots of love in both camps. A remarkable feat and she should be acknowledged for this more than just being passed off as the heir to Madonna and Michael’s throne. It’s an album where our possibly biggest pop star channels her surroundings and puts herself in a pop-culturally historical (if not hysterical) perspective in the light of her contemporary stardom and hopefully coming out artistically richer for the experience. I have, despite this being her weakest album to date, come ever so slightly closer to understanding why her Monsters worship her. Maybe in the end I’ll become a Monster too. Maybe we’ll all be Monsters.
