Strip off dizzying electro ornaments and painstakingly
artificial gloss smeared all over Artpop, one of the most anticipated albums of
2013, heavily touted as the game changer, it is left with nothing but
uninspiring lyrics and formulaic melodies. Take “Aura” the excessively produced
opening track for example or the next, “Venus” or the next “G.U.Y”, all cooked
in the same recipe as her previous hits, “Poker Face”, “Judas” or “Paparazzi”. And
Gaga once again sings about fame, fortune, fashion and fucking, the fundamentals that heavily dominated her three previous
discs.
Lady Gaga ~ Applause
Many had thought “Applause”, the first single, to be quite weak to lead a
project this big and ballyhooed, but it ends up being one of the bearable, if
not better, tracks of the set. Thanks to a few solid tracks such as the
cheerleading delight ("Manicure"), a modern-day nursery rhyme ("Gypsy") and the
energetic signature Gaga ("Swine"), that follow the first half of mediocrity (and pure noise!) including the duet with R.Kelly ("Do What U Want").
Lady Gaga, astutely aware of her massive gay following, goes as camp as possible with “Donatella” (think “Alejandro” diluted) and “Fashion” with pointless lyrics like “Walk into the light. Display your diamonds and pearls in light. Fashion!” No doubt, she can sing circles around her contemporaries like Katy Perry or Rihanna but her best asset here is sadly put away, effectively buried under synth-heavy techno beats instead. Artpop in a nutshell is an overhyped third studio outing by an entertainer who has pretty much run out of ideas. And if she intends to keep this album on the charts for the next few months, she’d better start cooking up costumes with shock values or outrageous videos that go trending on Twitter. As usual.
Lady Gaga, astutely aware of her massive gay following, goes as camp as possible with “Donatella” (think “Alejandro” diluted) and “Fashion” with pointless lyrics like “Walk into the light. Display your diamonds and pearls in light. Fashion!” No doubt, she can sing circles around her contemporaries like Katy Perry or Rihanna but her best asset here is sadly put away, effectively buried under synth-heavy techno beats instead. Artpop in a nutshell is an overhyped third studio outing by an entertainer who has pretty much run out of ideas. And if she intends to keep this album on the charts for the next few months, she’d better start cooking up costumes with shock values or outrageous videos that go trending on Twitter. As usual.
Lady Gaga ~ Do What U Want
Lady Gaga ~ Swine
Lady Gaga ~ Manicure
1 comment:
Hello there. I just stumbled upon your blog when I was looking for reviews for Regine's Fantasy, and from there moved to your other posts. Are you still in Jakarta? I just moved here myself. Since we share an interest in music, would be good to chat on that over coffee :)
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