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Review: Born this Way (Lady Gaga)


Skyline

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lady-gaga-born-this-way-album-cover-delu
LADY GAGA - BORN THIS WAY


Overview
Born This Way was released in May 2011 as Lady Gaga's third album (yes, I'm counting The Fame Monster as an album). The release of Born This Way had a lot of hype going behind it, Gaga had been dominating charts and award shows across the world with the combined successes of her debut The Fame and its follow-up The Fame Monster. All this success would inevitably lead to a huge amount of hype and interest to see what she could do next. Releasing a "Fame Monster 2.0" would've been an easy option and would've guaranteed her continued commercial success, but instead her next album turned out to be something different to what people expected. Born This Way was announced at the 2010 MTV Video Awards (where Gaga wore her infamous Meat dress) along with the chorus of the album's title track. The lead single was released in February 2011 and topped charts across the globe as well as breaking iTunes records. The song has since been an LGBT anthem of sorts, it's rare for any pop song to mention the words 'Gay', 'Lesbian' & 'Transgender' but Gaga did just that and turned it into a global smash hit.

However the success could not mask the fact that the sound of the track was different to her earlier releases and it marked the beginning of a more polarising phase in Gaga's career. The album as a whole follows a similar dance-pop sound of her earlier music while combining it with a mixture of genres such as Rock, Disco, 80s Pop & Metal. It certainly proved to be a very different album to the pop music landscape of 2011 (which Gaga had helped influence) and this is what lead to the wide range of responses. The album's metacritic page reveals a range of critics opinions, from a 91 score from MSN Music all the way to a 0 from TinyMixTapes (although TinyMixTapes must be pressed when presented with flawlesslessness, they also gave Lana Del Rey's 'Born to Die' album a 0). The range in responses from critics was also reflected in the performances in the singles. While the lead single had performed well thanks to its huge hype, the second single Judas underperformed and marked the end of the 'imperial' phase of Gaga's career. The promotional-turned-official single The Edge of Glory proved to be more successful thanks to being one of the more radio-friendly tracks of the album. The later singles You and I and Marry The Night had a more mixed response on the charts. Regardless of the singles performances, the album topped charts worldwide and proved to be a big success, selling at least 6 million copies worldwide (although some sources claim that it sold around 7 or possibly even 8 million in total). The Born This Way era saw Gaga's weirdness begin to fall out of favour with the General Public and began a decline in popularity that Gaga's hasn't fully recovered. While I think she can make a comeback, that's for a whole other discussion. Right now, let's take a look at the individual tracks on this album...

Track-By-Track
01. Marry The Night - This song is a great starting point for the album. The first verse starts up slowly with a haunting atmposhere and builds up to a wonderful chorus, providing plenty of energy for the rest of the album to follow with. This would've been a great lead single but it's understandable why Gaga would've wanted the title track to have had its moment. I think in hindsight, releasing this song instead of Judas would've been a better idea. Regardless of it's chart performance, this is one of the best songs on the album.

02. Born This Way - When I first heard this song I didn't like it very much. It was a bit weird compared to the music of The Fame and The Fame Monster and didn't seem to have to same instant catchiness of music on those albums. However it eventually grew on me after a long time and I definitely appreciated it's message. I will say that the piano version works a lot better (as is the case for many of Gaga's songs) and it's a shame that this song's success and message has been tainted by the stupid 'Express Yourself' controversy but enough about that mess.
 

Marry_the_Night.jpg Bornthisway.jpg  


03. Government Hooker - The album takes a sexual turn with this song. It begins with operatic vocals chanting "Gaga" repeatedly and then gradually transitions into an dark synthpop track. The chanting of "Hooker" throughout the track provides a great effect and the overall atmosphere remains dark yet sexual throughout with references to Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy as well as Gaga's bodyguard making a guest appearance to provide his computerised deep vocals for background lyrics "Back Up and Turn Around" & "Hands on the Ground". When I first heard the album I didn't know what to feel about this track, but now I can say this is one of my favourites.

04. Judas - The album's second single is essentially a Bad Romance 2.0 and is not ashamed to admit it. It follows a similar structure to that song and will no doubt please listeners who may prefer Gaga's The Fame Monster style music over the music on this album. I personally really like this song and I have to admit that it's a standout track featuring some great vocals on the chorus and bridge (listen to the acappella here if you don't believe me).

05. Americano - At first I used to really dislike this song, it wasn't the type of song that normally liked, but over time I've grown to appreciate it for it's sheer craziness. The song has a mixture of mariachi, house and techno, and it lyrically deals with the ideas of same-sex marriage and immigration. It still isn't one of my favourites but I definitely appreciate now more than I used to, because it shows the extent of how far Gaga can go to provide an interesting song such as this.

06. Hair - This track was released as a promotional single and it could've made a good single choice. It begins with Clarence Clemens performing a saxophone solo before the track builds up into a 80s-inspired club track. This song has often been criticised for having 'cheesy' lyrics but I don't mind the lyrics. The song has a nice positive quality about it and even though it has a similar message to the title track, I prefer this song over that track.
 

The word "Judas" is written in capital red letters on a dark brown background. Below is a red cross with a black heart in the middle.Greyscale upturned image of a woman lying on the ground, wearing a black leather dress. Her left hand is near her mouth and she looks up to the camera. On top-right the words "Lady Gaga" and "Hair" are written. The woman's flowing hair and the word "Hair" are colored pink.  



07. Scheiße - This was one of my instant favourites when listening to the album for the first time. This dance-pop/techno track is essentially about feminisim and features a use of faux-German which adds to it's overall weird-but-catchy feel. This song has a great chorus and could've been an interesting single choice but I can see why this not released as a single since it would've been too weird for radio to latch onto.

08. Bloody Mary - Operatic vocals are again used to open up a song on this album. In this case, the vocals set up the song with a creepy atmosphere before it pans out as a dark and atmospheric electroballad. By this point in the album, you become well aware that this an album that would not have been released by other pop stars. Songs such as this showcase Gaga's madness being mixed with great lyrics and production.

09. Black Jesus + Amen Fashion - One of the 3 bonus tracks on the Special Edition version of the album and I feel like this is a good thing because this might be the first 'dud' of the album. The title is the most interesting part about it. It certainly is a nice enough song but it doesn't really showcase anything that hasn't been heard on the album and is pretty underwhelming compared the previous 8 songs.

10. Bad Kids - Like with Hair, this track often gets attacked for being too 'cheesy' but I have an odd fondness for this track. It may not be the strongest song on the album by any means but it is fun to listen to. Although I admit that the verses are better than the chorus.

11. Fashion of His Love - The second bonus track of the album and it features a very 80s-inspired sound, reminding me a lot of Whitney Houston's classic track 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)'. I occasionally like to listen to some good 80s music from time to time, so I do like this song but it is weak compared to a lot of the other tracks on the album and I can see why it was chosen to be a bonus track.

12. Highway Unicorn (Road to Love) - The song title may be cheesy but this track is great. Lots of energy and the song glides along with ease, it's definitely not the type of song to be released as a single but it's a great album track.

13. Heavy Metal Lover - When I first heard this song, I didn't really understand the hype behind it and why the fans loved it so much. The song has since grown on me and I definitely like it a lot more now. The autotuned vocals are used to great effect here although I don't really listen to this song that much and I feel that the Gaga stans overrate it a bit.

14. Electric Chapel - One of my favourites from the album. It begins with a mixture of a electric guitar solo and church bells and features high paced vocals on the verses before becoming slower during the chorus. I could imagine this track getting a great video and it's a shame it was never a single.

15. The Queen - The final bonus track and probably my favourite out of the 3. It features an upbeat first half before transitioning into a slower second half. Overall it feels like a transition track between Electric Chapel and You and I but still feels like it could stand out on its own. This track is probably the most underrated song on here since Gaga herself didn't bother performing this song on the Born This Way Ball Tour until half way through the tour, and even then referred to it as a b-side, as if it were a leftover.

16. You and I - A great song to show off a different side to Gaga's typical dance-pop music. Instead she decides to pursue a country-inspired rock ballad and it works well. The track is the main ballad of the album but it is a big standout from the album and it deserves to be remembered as a classic Gaga ballad.
 

220px-GagaYouIcover.jpg220px-Lady_Gaga_-_The_Edge_of_Glory.png  


17. The Edge of Glory - A great final track to end the album. It's one of the more radio-friendly songs on this album, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The song has a strong euphoric feel to it. The saxophone solo from Clarence Clements is a great feature of the track (shame that it was cut out of the radio edit) and the song overall ends this album on a strong note. I remember absolutely stanning for this song when it was first released and I still love it to this day.
 

12 Comments


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Reading your review made me listen to the album again and ugh it was such a good album, even with the weird lyrics cry0 

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8 hours ago, Justice said:

So many timeless classics cry7 Stan The Queen! ny1 

Flawless review cry6 

It's a great album cry7

When you said "The Queen", I didn't know if you were referring to the song or to Gaga dead4

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8 hours ago, Rico said:

Reading your review made me listen to the album again and ugh it was such a good album, even with the weird lyrics cry0 

I love the weirdness of the album, it makes really unique compared to a lot of other pop albums cry0

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1 minute ago, Skyline said:

When you said "The Queen", I didn't know if you were referring to the song or to Gaga dead4

Why not both? jj2 

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8 hours ago, Impossible Princess said:

Black Jesus + Amen Fashion is not a dud meg1 It's one of the best meg1 

 

But other than that, I agree jj2  Excellent review.

I like Black Jesus but I prefer about 90% of the album to it, so It's one of the weaker tracks imo jj2

Random Fact: Black Jesus peaked at #22 in Spain, so I guess the Spanish proved me wrong jj2

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some great vocals on the vocals

The inception creep1 

A very well-written review, one of the better ones I've read here clap3 As for the music itself, you already know my opinion about this performer but Marry the Night is a cute sing!

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10 hours ago, Vilppu said:

The inception creep1 

A very well-written review, one of the better ones I've read here clap3 As for the music itself, you already know my opinion about this performer but Marry the Night is a cute sing!

mess where did I type that? rip3 I was getting tired when writing it so I must have missed it rip3

But yes stan for Marry the Night, the best single from the album clap3

EDIT: I just found it in the Judas description rip3 Thanks for pointing it out rip3

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