After much fanfare for her new album, Born This Way (which will be released next week), the singles and leaked tracks from Lady Gaga‘s upcoming album have proven, stylistically, very confusing. As soon as “Born This Way” dropped, everyone accused Gagsy of ripping off Madonna (personally, I do think it resembles “Express Yourself,” but the song has grown on me, in its weird, ethereal glory) (also, the video is just f*cking rad as all get-out).
The title track was soon followed by “Judas,” “The Edge Of Glory,” and now “Hair” (and the just-leaked “Marry The Night“). Maybe we’re alone here, but these songs are just so…odd. Not in the cool, performance-art way, either, that Gaga executes sartorially. “Born This Way” does a pretty great job of marrying 90′s power pop with spacey, echoing downbeats and Gaga’s signature spoken-word refrains, but “Judas,” “Hair,” and “Marry The Night” are — of all things — super Jock Jam/La Bouche-y. And the ballads “You And I” and “Americano” are very much by-the-book, so…they’re fine.
And while we can’t turn off “The Edge Of Glory,” it might be because it sounds like Celine Dion covering Mike & The Mechanics, with a seriously hilarz sax breakdown that sounds like Weird Al snuck into the studio. We love it, but it’s ridiculous to think that it’s an actual Lady Gaga song. It’s like the song was written for a Nickelodeon movie, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s insane to think that Lady Gaga sings about “dancing in the flames” in 2011. …Right?
So what is happening here? Of course, musicians should and do develop their music and expand into new territory. But Gaga has already received a fair share of flak for her strange foray into an unpredicted, weirdly retro (by “weird,” we mean “retro = 90′s”) sonic terrain, despite very good sales on her new tracks, which essentially sound nothing like “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face.” Do you like Gaga’s new stuff? Will you buy her album? Sales look anything but bleak, but we’re wondering if this “Nu GaGa” has struck others as weird-in-a-weird-way, too.
– Eliot Glazer
