Imagine, for a second, that Lady Gaga didn't dress like a member of wrestling team Demolition, pose for fashion spreads wearing nothing but the rings of Saturn around her head 또는 give interviews dressed in the carcasses of Kermit the Frog. Imagine if she didn't speak her mind, delight in tweaking the media 또는 treat her fame as one gigantic, Warholian art project. In other words, imagine if she were just another boring, bottle-blond, midriff-bearing pop star.
I know all that is pretty difficult to consider — without any of the flair 또는 the insanity 또는 the nudity, Gaga just wouldn't be Gaga — but if 당신 somehow managed to strip away all the ephemera, what would 당신 have left? Would Gaga still be interesting? Would she still have sold 1.3 million copies of The Fame here in the U.S., 또는 have been nominated for nine 엠티비 Video 음악 Awards? Would she be announced, in the same breath as 제이 지 no less, as a VMA performer?
We'll never know, of course. But while Gaga: The Pop-Art Project is what sells magazines (and albums), Gaga: The Pop 별, 스타 is where the attention ought to lie. As paparazzi bait, she's pretty great, but as a musician, as a vessel and a muse, she's even better.
I only discovered this recently, when I finally dug into her debut disc, The Fame, which was released almost exactly one 년 이전 today (I've been busy). As a 음악 critic, ignoring on one of '09's breakout hits is rather inexcusable, but I would feel much worse about it if I didn't suspect roughly 99 percent of the music-buying population of being guilty of the same thing: It seems we all know Lady Gaga, but we don't have any idea who she is as an artist.
So, I advise everyone to sit down and really listen to The Fame. Don't focus on the monster singles — "Just Dance," "LoveGame," "Paparazzi" and "Poker Face" — something which is pretty easy to do on the U.S. version of the album, which re-sequences them as the first four tracks, and listen hard to the rest. What you're left with is 10 slickly produced, genre-mashing, joy-inducing, PMRC-infuriating pop/dance tracks, a standalone album in its own right.
"Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" is a breezy, vaguely Carribbean electro-pop gem, recalling Madonna's "La Isla Bonita," Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" and basically the entire Deborah Gibson/Tiffany canon (this is a good thing). "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," struts on a wobbly 베이스 펀치 that's reminiscent of the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" and some cracking live drums, and "The Fame" is a super-charged, buzzing ode to the glamorous life.
"Money Honey" has Gaga vamping — and showing off some serious pipes — over a hornet's nest of electronics. "Boys Boys Boys" has her fantasizing about making out with a boy in retro sneakers at a Killers concert. "Brown Eyes" is a somber, stop-start power ballad, a lover's lament that seems out of step with everything 당신 think 당신 know about L.G., and "I Like It Rough" is a shimmery, whirring Jazzercise soundtrack that's probably one of one of my 가장 좋아하는 tunes of the 년 (or last year, whatever). Oh, and album-closer "Summerboy" sounds like a Strokes song, only with Debbie Harry on vocals.
The point is, this is a great album. Gaga shines brightly, but so does the production work of (mostly) RedOne and Martin Kierszenbaum, which flits between chrome-clean futurism and scratched, hazy retro, somehow managing to capture Gaga's NYC party past, present and (probably) future. It's an accomplished, sexy, funny and fun listen, a dazzling run through pop, funk, disco, rock and intelligent dance 음악 (and not, 당신 know, "Intelligent Dance Music"), the kind of thing that I lamented would probably never get big in the States just last year. Only somehow, against all odds, it has.
The Fame is darn near close to perfection. And it's proof that Gaga is 더 많이 than just that weird, pantsless pop 별, 스타 running around 유럽 with a bow in her hair and a 차 cup in her hand. She's a musician, she's a vessel, she's a star. Some of 당신 are probably aware of this already, but a lot of you, this is breaking news. 당신 think 당신 know Gaga, but 당신 have no idea.
I know all that is pretty difficult to consider — without any of the flair 또는 the insanity 또는 the nudity, Gaga just wouldn't be Gaga — but if 당신 somehow managed to strip away all the ephemera, what would 당신 have left? Would Gaga still be interesting? Would she still have sold 1.3 million copies of The Fame here in the U.S., 또는 have been nominated for nine 엠티비 Video 음악 Awards? Would she be announced, in the same breath as 제이 지 no less, as a VMA performer?
We'll never know, of course. But while Gaga: The Pop-Art Project is what sells magazines (and albums), Gaga: The Pop 별, 스타 is where the attention ought to lie. As paparazzi bait, she's pretty great, but as a musician, as a vessel and a muse, she's even better.
I only discovered this recently, when I finally dug into her debut disc, The Fame, which was released almost exactly one 년 이전 today (I've been busy). As a 음악 critic, ignoring on one of '09's breakout hits is rather inexcusable, but I would feel much worse about it if I didn't suspect roughly 99 percent of the music-buying population of being guilty of the same thing: It seems we all know Lady Gaga, but we don't have any idea who she is as an artist.
So, I advise everyone to sit down and really listen to The Fame. Don't focus on the monster singles — "Just Dance," "LoveGame," "Paparazzi" and "Poker Face" — something which is pretty easy to do on the U.S. version of the album, which re-sequences them as the first four tracks, and listen hard to the rest. What you're left with is 10 slickly produced, genre-mashing, joy-inducing, PMRC-infuriating pop/dance tracks, a standalone album in its own right.
"Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" is a breezy, vaguely Carribbean electro-pop gem, recalling Madonna's "La Isla Bonita," Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" and basically the entire Deborah Gibson/Tiffany canon (this is a good thing). "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," struts on a wobbly 베이스 펀치 that's reminiscent of the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" and some cracking live drums, and "The Fame" is a super-charged, buzzing ode to the glamorous life.
"Money Honey" has Gaga vamping — and showing off some serious pipes — over a hornet's nest of electronics. "Boys Boys Boys" has her fantasizing about making out with a boy in retro sneakers at a Killers concert. "Brown Eyes" is a somber, stop-start power ballad, a lover's lament that seems out of step with everything 당신 think 당신 know about L.G., and "I Like It Rough" is a shimmery, whirring Jazzercise soundtrack that's probably one of one of my 가장 좋아하는 tunes of the 년 (or last year, whatever). Oh, and album-closer "Summerboy" sounds like a Strokes song, only with Debbie Harry on vocals.
The point is, this is a great album. Gaga shines brightly, but so does the production work of (mostly) RedOne and Martin Kierszenbaum, which flits between chrome-clean futurism and scratched, hazy retro, somehow managing to capture Gaga's NYC party past, present and (probably) future. It's an accomplished, sexy, funny and fun listen, a dazzling run through pop, funk, disco, rock and intelligent dance 음악 (and not, 당신 know, "Intelligent Dance Music"), the kind of thing that I lamented would probably never get big in the States just last year. Only somehow, against all odds, it has.
The Fame is darn near close to perfection. And it's proof that Gaga is 더 많이 than just that weird, pantsless pop 별, 스타 running around 유럽 with a bow in her hair and a 차 cup in her hand. She's a musician, she's a vessel, she's a star. Some of 당신 are probably aware of this already, but a lot of you, this is breaking news. 당신 think 당신 know Gaga, but 당신 have no idea.
We are a generation twisted 의해 our myth
Confused and ludicrous, holding on to love
Consumed 의해 all the pleasures in our midst
A life without the lips we've kissed
And losing all control
We're gonna start a resistance
So we want independence
We're gonna give the world some of this
Electric kiss
I'm gonna change the world with my lips
One voice forever
We'll live together
Peace, love, solitude and happiness
Electric kiss
Fame is our felony
We're so in 사랑 with it
Superstars and masochists
Who don't know where to go
But the poets and the fathers of our time
Put down their weapons in their arms
And know what they must do
We're gonna start a resistance
So we want independence
We're gonna give the world some of this
Electric kiss
I'm gonna change the world with my lips
One voice forever
We'll live together
Peace, love, solitude and happiness
Electric kiss
I'm gonna change the world with my lips
One voice for ever
We'll live together
Peace, love, solitude and happiness
Electric kiss
Confused and ludicrous, holding on to love
Consumed 의해 all the pleasures in our midst
A life without the lips we've kissed
And losing all control
We're gonna start a resistance
So we want independence
We're gonna give the world some of this
Electric kiss
I'm gonna change the world with my lips
One voice forever
We'll live together
Peace, love, solitude and happiness
Electric kiss
Fame is our felony
We're so in 사랑 with it
Superstars and masochists
Who don't know where to go
But the poets and the fathers of our time
Put down their weapons in their arms
And know what they must do
We're gonna start a resistance
So we want independence
We're gonna give the world some of this
Electric kiss
I'm gonna change the world with my lips
One voice forever
We'll live together
Peace, love, solitude and happiness
Electric kiss
I'm gonna change the world with my lips
One voice for ever
We'll live together
Peace, love, solitude and happiness
Electric kiss
Damn I 사랑 the Jag, the jet and the mansion
Oh yea
And I enjoy the gifts and trips to the islands
Oh yea
It's good to live expensive 당신 know it but
My knees get weak, intensive
[Chorus]
When 당신 give me k-kisses
That's money honey
When I'm your lover and your mistress
That's money honey
When 당신 touch me it's so delicious
That's money honey
Baby when 당신 tear me to pieces
That's money honey
That's M-O-N-E-Y, so sexy, I
That's money honey
Damn I'd 사랑 a 보트 의해 the 바닷가, 비치 on the west coast
Oh yea
And I'd enjoy some fine champagne while my girls toast
Oh yea
Its good to live expensive 당신 know it but
My knees get weak, intensive
[Chorus]
당신 know I appreciate the finer things
But it's not what makes me happiest baby
{I can do without it babe}
Your tender loving's 더 많이 than I can handle
Never burn out this candle baby, baby
[Chorus x3]