Cheryl Chia
(All pictures from Lady Gaga’s official website)
After Lady Gaga’s massive success with her debut album, The Fame, I was wondering if she could replicate that effect with her 8 new singles off her bumper album.
UrbanWire reviews the hits and misses of The Fame Monster.
The Hits
I must say, when I first heard the leaked demo version of her first single “Bad Romance”, I was rather disappointed. It sounded great of course, however, I wasn’t impressed by the lack of innovation with the repetitive hooks. Even the Lady herself, tweeted: “Leaked next single is makin my ears bleed. Wait till you hear the real version ;)”
I’m happy to report that the official “Bad Romance” single is going to be the next “Pokerface”. The Fame Monster shows off Lady Gaga’s strong vocals, proving that she isn’t a synthesised-to-death artiste. Especially with her fourth track, “Speechless”, which takes on tones of “Brown Eyes” from her previous album but with more range and depth to her voice.
The Lady also seems to be experimenting with linguistics in this album with a French lyric,“Je veux ton amour, et je veux ta revanche” [which means “I want your love, and I want your revenge”] thrown into “Bad Romance” and a weird Spanish accent kicking off seemingly telenovela inspired the second track “Alejandro”.
However, the crown for “Song That Can Potentially Grow On You” is swept away by the sixth track, “Telephone”, where the risk taken paid off handsomely. In this standout track, there’s the odd combination of R&B princess Beyoncé Knowles‘ vocals and Lady Gaga’s electropop beats meshed beautifully together creating a perfectly danceable song. Trust me, this one will be playing in clubs in times to come.
Lady Gaga’s lyrics seem to take a darker turn in The Fame Monster where she sings about heartbreak and rejection in other tracks (“Eat my heart”, she intones in the song “Monster”) but demands that you take “a bite of (her) bad girl meat” in the final track “Teeth”.
The Misses
“So Happy I Could Die”, feels uninspired although she sings the provocative line “I touch myself can’t get enough” while fantasising about a “lavender-blonde” girl, presumably herself as Lady Gaga had purple and blonde hair for a while. It lacks the powerhouse vocals and strong beats to do the lyrics justice. The chorus sounds like a cross between Natasha Bedingfield‘s “Pocket Full Of Sunshine” and the beats from “Lovegame”.
“Dance In The Dark” had promising lyrics as well with her singing about a girl getting breast implants – “Silicone/Saline/Poison/Inject me/Baby, I’m a free/ B***h”, for her boyfriend who still left her but it frittered off into boring-land with the repetitive 80s disco-esque hook.
The Verdict
Overall, an excellent effort by the Lady to reinvent herself by showing off her vocal prowess instead of hiding behind a barrage of bass beats. Awesome music to club to and you’ll definitely see me on the dance floor if any of her songs are playing.
This is where it shows that the Lady really cares for her fans. There will be 3 different versions of The Fame Monster to cater to every fan out there.
The Fan
For those who crave the new tracks only, a regular version of The Fame Monster with the new 8 singles is just the album for you.
- Bad Romance
- Alejandro
- Monster
- So Happy I Could Die
- Speechless
- Dance In The Dark
- Telephone
- Teeth
The Double-Duty Fan
If you missed Lady Gaga’sdebut album, the deluxe version includes all the tracks from The Fame as well as the 8 new tracks.
The Uber Fan
For Lady Gaga’s monsters, there’s a collector’s edition super-deluxe art book version, which includes both albums, fanzines, 3-D glasses, paper dolls, a puzzle, pictorials, a lock of Lady Gaga’s hair and other surprises.
Excited yet?