 | Tracklist:
1. Marry the Night
2. Born This Way
3. Government Hooker
4. Judas
5. Americano
6. Hair
7. Scheiße
8. Bloody Mary
9. Bad Kids
10. Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)
11. Heavy Metal Lover
12. Electric Chapel
13. Yoü and I
14. The Edge of Glory
Release Date: 05/23/2011 | |
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On 21 Lists
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| Summary: It doesn’t quite reach the heights found on The Fame and The Fame Monster, but Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is still a decent effort. |
7 of 12 thought this review was well written
At this point, I don’t think that anyone can deny that Lady Gaga is nothing short of a global phenomenon. Coupling her musical talents with her eccentrics and, lately, with her social/political commentaries taking center stage during the past year or so, she’s evolved into something more than a simple pop star, and there’s rarely a time when we’re not focused on what Lady Gaga has done, and what she will do next. So when someone of her stature drops an album, the whole world is going to take notice, making Born This Way, Gaga’s second full-length album, a worldwide event. Does Gaga succeed in matching the success of 2008’s The Fame and 2009’s The Fame Monster EP that spring-boarded her immense popularity, or does she experience the dreaded sophomore slump?
Born This Way opens up with “Marry The Night”, and right away we get a taste of what Gaga is trying to accomplish: thick, stylized synths and effects coupled with her soaring voice and catchy choruses. After a lounge-type intro, “Marry The Night” breaks into one of the album’s most infectious choruses, and suddenly the listener is swept away in an enveloping electronic atmosphere backed by a sledging beat. With “Marry The Night”, Gaga seems to show off some new elements, namely electric guitars and bigger, heavier beats, giving the entire song a very artistic, personalized feel, and it’s not the only time we experience it on Born This Way.
Along with “Marry The Night”, Gaga fans are treated to some other great tracks in the same vein. Her lead single “Born This Way” is next on the list, and even though the political message intertwined with the song is a little overbearing, it succeeds as a successful pop song. “Judas”, her second single, although an obvious “Bad Romance” clone, also makes it hard to shake the chorus from your head. “Americano” is a nice spiritual follow-up to “Alejandro”, featuring a terrific mariachi influence, while “Bloody Mary” is a slower, brooding, semi-ballad that features yet another catchy chorus. “Hair” manages to progress smoothly through the five-minute time frame, while “Edge Of Glory” acts as a terrific closer, featuring much of the elements that made “Marry The Night” such successful opener.
But like most pop albums, the listener gets treated to a lot of questionable filler. First off, although “Scheiße” features one of the album’s most infectious choruses, the replay value is stinted due to Gaga’s unnecessary need to prattle off in German for the song’s first minute, almost ruining the song completely. And while Born This Way tries to marry a stylized sound with catchy choruses, almost half of the album features songs with plenty of style but very little substance: “Government Hooker” is a plodding, boring track with little momentum, while “Bad Kids” is unbearably bad and completely unfocused. “Heavy Metal Lover” lacks any sort of great hook, while both “Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)” and “Electric Chapel” flirt too closely with atrocious 80s hair metal. Finally, “You And I” would have been a spectacular ballad if not for the incredibly cheesy “We Will Rock You”-esque stomps and claps.
Overall, with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, I can’t help but feel that she’s taken a step down in quality from her previous material. While a majority of the album is composed of some highly creative and catchy pop songs, I personally don’t feel that there’s anything here that compares with some of her other legendary songs like “Pokerface” and “Bad Romance”. And on the flip side, while we’ve never really been treated to any Lady Gaga songs that have been offensively bad, we are treated to a handful of tracks on Born This Way that miss the mark completely. I can’t help but feel Gaga could have done more to keep us entertained for fourteen tracks, but in the end, Born This Way will stand up as one of the best pop albums of the year, even though the highs aren’t as high as we’re used to, coupled to the fact that we’ve been introduced to some new Gaga lows.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 3.5
I felt that the other two reviews, although terrific, were too wrapped up in the album's political aspects.
I agree that she's trying to hard to associate this album with the gay rights movement, but outside of "Born This Way", I don't think the album suffers for it.
Happy apocalypse, btw.
Digging: Sharks - No Gods Digging: Sharks - No Gods | | |
Thankyou.
at least you talked about the music and not a lot of fluff about how she is a pop culture trainwreck
I agree with everything you wrote, much of it is growing on me like a cancer though
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Really stupendous review, David. Still, I don't think this is for me haha
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Agree with this the most
Digging: Amon Tobin - Amon Tobin Digging: Amon Tobin - Amon Tobin
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Decent review
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Great review man.
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| | | Album Rating: 3 | Sound Off
Great review. I'd say this is the most level (and therefore objective) of the reviews so far =]
Digging: Perfume Genius - Put Your Back N 2 It | | |
just saw the tracklist, lol'd
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Very nice review agree with the rateing pos'. I have to say the songs have been growing on me. But I think ill just stick to Judas and The Edge of Glory.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
but in the end, Born This Way will stand up as one of the best pop albums of the year.
Speak Now>Born This Way.
And...btw,great review.
| | | Album Rating: 3 | Sound Off
God, who would neg this?
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God, probably.
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I didn't neg this, but it's really not that great of a review. Pretty formulaic and not a very interesting read. Doesn't deserve a neg, though.
| | | Album Rating: 3 | Sound Off
Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a brilliant review or anything, but it doesn't try to be - it just talks about the music and reaches a nicely balanced conclusion, which can't really be said for either mine or Chan's reviews.
And Playground, I asked for that, didn't I.
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Speak Now>Born This Way.
That's from 2010. In 2011 this really doesn't have any competition, just look at that terrible Jessie J. The only thing that would come close is Katy B - On A Mission.
| | | Album Rating: 2
Excellent!
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put your hands on me
John F. Kennedy
i'll make you squeal baby
as long as you pay me
| | | Album Rating: 5 | Sound Off
Eventually people will realise...
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i'm starting to think in some ways this is better than her past two releases
those definitely had tighter hooks for the most part but I can't deny this is just as fun to listen to, if not more so.
| | | Album Rating: 3
This is a really good review. Mad props for playing devil's advocate and killing it.
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