As many of you know, I’ve been looking forward to this album’s release pretty much all year. I didn’t need to know what her album would be called or really hear any of Gaga’s songs to know that this would be my most anticipated album of 2011. So when Gaga released her first single Born This Way I was extremely pleased. When Gaga released her second single Judas I loved it and sang it in my house for weeks, much to the annoyance of my husband. When she recently released The Edge of Glory I was elated because even though it has a random 80’s sax solo, I thought her voice sounded really amazing. Yet, upon listening to her entire album I can safely say that this is not The Fame/Fame Monster. It is always incredibly hard to follow up such an amazing album. I would say that I don’t think there is a song on this album that can compare to the crazy awesomeness of Bad Romance or Poker Face. On Born This Way Gaga does a few things: 1) She has an obscene amount of Christian/Religious symbolism. 2) Many of her songs are throwbacks similar to retro 80’s Madonna. 3) She repeats many themes from songs on her first album, and uses the same melodies on many of the tracks on this album. In terms of #1, Gaga has songs like Judas, Bloody Mary, Black Jesus (Amen Fashion), and those are just the titles! In Bloody Mary Gaga sings “I won’t cry for you/ I won’t crucify the things that you do.” In Black Jesus she sings “Jesus is the new black/ amen fashion on the runway/work it black Jesus,” which in itself is bizarre. In terms of #2 Gaga’s really trying to bring the 80’s back. Songs like Edge of Glory and Hair while entertaining; feature classic 80’s saxophone solo’s by Clarence Clemons of the E-Street Band. Songs like Bad Kids, and Fashion of his Love(written about Alexander McQueen) are fun, and good, but still way too 80’s for right now. I can safely say that Gaga’s voice does blow Madonna’s out of the water, but I cant help but feel like this album, or at the very least these tracks on the album would feel more at home in lets say 1986(my birth year). In terms of #3, a song like Americano in my humble opinion is a pale imitation of its greater more interesting cousin Alejandro. In Sheiβe (pronounced Shy-e-zah) uses the exact same chorus/beat as the random “prostitute wench” section of Judas. She may even be saying the exact same words but in German. Where Gaga shines is on songs like You and I a ballad similar to her amazing song Speechless on her previous album. Her voice really comes through in songs like this and it is definitely a force in and of itself to be reckoned with. She also shines on songs like Government Hooker, a song that when I first heard it was like…meh, but actually can not stop singing it now and seems to get better to me each time I play it. It’s classic bizarro Gaga comparable to Paper Gangster Teeth. I also really like the songs Electric Chapel and The Queen but again they aren’t as good as her earlier material. What I can say is this cd is really a mixed bag for me. I really like her singles so far, and I do like a few of the songs on the album a lot. Its just not to the extent of the last album where I literally loved every single song, and felt that Gaga had a purpose and story to tell with her music. Here I felt she really dropped the ball in terms of storytelling and instead used religious imagery to the max as well as heartfelt inspirations (her grandfather, Alex McQueen) in order to drive the album. All in all I would give the album a B, not the best, but not the worst either.
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