Lady Gaga’s Born This Way: ★★★★★★★★
Allow me to preface this by providing a brief introduction into my mentality regarding music.
Being a musician myself, I pride myself in the quality of music I not only play, but enjoy and listen to on a regular basis. My iTunes library boasts an impressive 13,000 songs, which is roughly equivalent to 33 and a half days. But I am not here to brag about the quantitative amounts of music I’ve come to acquire over the years— the quality, NOT the quantity, of the music I listen to is of a fairly high caliber. Basically, I consider myself to have selective taste in music, and that my taste is refined enough to provide accurate reviews of singles, albums, artists, playlists, what have you.
That being said, I, like millions of other listeners across the globe, am a Little Monster. Not in the “Where The Wild Things Are“‘s Max manner, but in the I-like-Lady-Gaga guise.
Many self-proclaimed ‘hipster’ folk and ‘indie’ fans cringe at the thought of admitting their secret fascination with the prodigious pop superstar, lying through their cigarette-stained teeth about how she is too ‘mainstream’ for them. I have let my pretentious palate fall by the wayside in order to embrace not only the outrageous and astonishing personality of Stephanie Germanotta, but the catchy and contagious choruses as well.
Born This Way, in it’s entirety, demonstrates Lady Gaga’s mastery in being passionate; upon first listen, Gaga’s music proves it’s purpose in being written for herself and for her fans, not for a record contract, which, in my humble opinion, makes for the best albums. The record opens with what starts out as the hymnal “Marry the Night”, which quickly morphs into something more fit in Gaga’s repertoire, with it’s constant 4/4 House beat entwined in Gaga’s classic distorted and electronic backing instruments. This opening number effectively transitions into the title track, “Born This Way”, a self-love ballad that was met with many a critic’s comparison to Madonna. However similar this track may be, Gaga, as always, puts her own spin on the song with her central message of loving one’s self, no matter what. After these two notable tracks, the record continues into the bizarre, but not by any means bad “Government Hooker”, which quickly eases into her biblical ballad, “Judas”. In all honesty, “Judas” was not originally among my favorites off of this album, but as I continuously listened to it, I found myself more and more drawn towards the general sound of the song, as well as the New Testament references and manipulations of meaning Gaga so effectively executes.
“Americano” plays along the same lines as Gaga’s previous hit “Alejandro” in it’s instrumentation and Latin feel, but nonetheless has it’s own distinctions in content manner.
Gaga continues on the self-love track in her power pop piece “Hair”, which definitely ranks high on my list of all time Gaga favorites. “Schibe”, an eccentric electronic piece, has a strangely catchy German hook from the beginning, which Gaga builds upon in tiers, instrumentally, and allows the culmination to effectively peak at each return of the chorus. In typical Gaga fashion, “Bloody Mary” is another biblical reference distorted into modern poetry, similar in feel to the latter portion of the album’s opening number.
Keeping up with the contagiousness that Gaga is known for, “Bad Kids” continues the 4/4 House beat that is found throughout the album, but adds somewhat of a rock and roll edge with it’s guitar riff and Gaga’s vocals. “Highway Unicorn (Road 2 Love)” erupts from the beginning as an inspirational ballad, extremely catchy and, of course, bizarre in lyrical nature.
From “Highway Unicorn”, Gaga leads listeners into “Heavy Mental Lover”, a fairly risque (lyrically) piece that, for me, is very reminiscient and reflective of the rise of dubstep in recent interest. ”Electric Chapel” calls back the rock and roll vibe from previous “Bad Kids”, with it’s grungy guitar, while still effectively maintaining the very club-like feel of the entire album. In a pretty stark contrast, the less electronic and more piano-esque ballad “U&I” switches the House/Electro/Pop vibe that was so effectively continued throughout the first 12 tracks of Born This Way to that of a more Country feel. Although I love the idea of this song, I have to admit my disappointment with “U&I”; for me, the song’s traditionally Country music beat and backing instruments doesn’t quite fit the rest of the album. From this track, the record goes into it’s last track, the absolutely fabulous “Edge of Glory”, featuring the late Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band on saxophone. “Edge of Glory” is quintessential Gaga in every possible manner, and so very effectively wraps up the album.
Although each song has it’s own power and purpose, Born This Way is best listened to from cover to cover, so to speak. The transition and movement from song to song, both musically and lyrically, truly displays Lady Gaga’s brilliance.
Rating: ★★★★★★★★
