Review Summary: Lady Gaga: Retro-Queen.
Lady Gaga's Born This Way was the biggest musical event of the year, and the reviews were mixed. Usually I'm on the side of, "This album was great. Nobody understands what they're doing." But instead, I'm very perplexed by this record. And if Born This Way wasn't considered a rip-off of Madonna's "Express Yourself" - which I cease to believe now - I will say that there's right many, if not too many, Madonna allusions within it.
Actually, there's too many allusions entirely, and the album doesn't live and breathe Lady Gaga, it lives and breathes tributes to 80's pop.
There's no overall story or mood within the album. The album goes from a song that sounds alot like Madonna (Fashion of His Love) to a song that sounds alot like Blondie (Electric Chapel), and something that sounds like it was written by some Blues Brother band (You and I).
No I probably hate this album, but there are good points - Judas is her greatest song ever, though it sounds like a rip-off of herself. It sounds like a psycho- more prophetic edition of Bad Romance, and I think I read somewhere it sounds a little like Pokerface. Edge of Glory is one of the few retro songs from the album that I like. It uses some 80's synths, or something, whatever it is it sounds 80's and slightly 90's, with the overall neutral effect that all retro tracks produced in the early 2010's has. It sounds like her last love song before she jumps off a cliff with her beloved - which a performance by her on American Idol helped me imagine.
Electric Chapel IS a good song, and so is Heavy Metal Lover - that's just about the only thing Gaga created herself for the album. I also like The Queen.
The album is a love letter to her fans. Simple, easy to decode lyrics that could be understood by a 13 year old girl, uplifting harmonies, and messages to fill up all kinds of stuff that's positive.
However there's no danger, there's no genius, and I feel like she's tainted her image with slogans like, "Fashion of His Love", "There's only three men that Imma serve my whole life. That's my daddy and Nebraska and Jesus Christ", and whatever other Jesus reference she has loaded up in there.
