Now, in conjunction with her worldwide The Monster Ball Tour, Gaga has released The Fame Monster, her second studio album featuring eight new songs. The album's first single, Bad Romance, premiered at the Alexander McQueen runway show in Paris on October 6. Its music video was released two weeks ago, to great online hubbub.
The Fame Monster is identifiably Gaga, and melds the enthusiastic energy of The Fame with the self-assured confidence that comes with worldwide recognition. Bad Romance and the new tracks Dance In The Dark and Monster retain Gaga's infectious musical hooks and crazed, nonsensical lyrics. At the same time, Gaga is still running the gamut with new sounds, experimenting with synthesized Latin beats in Alejandro and baring her fangs with the dark and seductive Teeth. Gaga's voice and writing fit comfortably into each of these sounds, embracing their essences while making them her own. Her ballads, Speechless and So Happy I Could Die, are excellently sung but less engaging than her upbeat club music. In a much-discussed collaboration-of-the-divas, the track Telephone features Beyoncé, who provides a vocal punch with her fierce cameo.
Gaga's weakness in The Fame Monster is her lyrics. Some songs hold true to the the razor-sharp phrases of The Fame ("Silicone / Saline / Poison / Inject me, baby" opens Dance In The Dark.) However, some weaker tracks give way to lyrics that are ironic at best and banal at worst (Telephone labors under "I have got no service in the club, you see / What did you say? You're breaking up on me").This fault is a small one: Gaga's talent at writing catchy, groundbreaking melodies is more than enough to make her songs into hits.
The Fame Monster was originally intended as an extended re-release of The Fame, with the new tracks added as a second disk, and it shows. The Fame Monster, while providing enjoyable dance-club fare, does not stand alone as an complete work. That said, the album drips with Gaga's explosive personality and unparalleled showmanship, and is a solid contribution to securing her place as one of the forerunners of contemporary pop music.
The Fame Monster, by Lady Gaga, is released today, and is available for download on iTunes.
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great review!
ReplyDeleteI don't know the lyrics just yet, as I have to buy the album today, but if you look at the lyrics to the songs in The Fame, some of them are just as tacky. In fact, I think Telephone, as much as I love it, is just unoriginal, considering Madonna wrote and released a similar song last year, called "Hung Up." Personally, I think Paparazzi is the tackiest of all, and I love Gaga more than most people do.
ReplyDeleteMy love for Gaga is not because of her music, but because of her desire to turn pop back into what is originally was: a place for loud self expression and extremity, much in the way Michael Jackson and Madonna did. I mean, if you've seen the Bad Romance video, half the choreography looks like it came from Thriller. Perhaps this was just in light of MJ's death, but I think she has been channeling him for a while. He had the glove and the leather jacket; she has the sunglasses and the unitard.
Her songs are about solifying this return to glamour ideal and her image as a cracked out pop diva. She is bringing pop back to a life of glamour and excessive tendencies, and steering it away from the Britney/JT drama. Her life is a mystery. She exists as an image and her scandals are her own; unlike Britney, she doesn't need a scandal to regain popularity because she IS a scandal.
Since I love her, she clearly needs to be reviewed. But, as I think she is not truly a musician as much as she is just an artist, I don't think we can judge her lyrics because they just aren't important. Her role in the music world is just to fulfil a niche and remind society what it takes to be a pop icon - and to live as such.