Lady Gaga - "Joanne"

Lady Gaga - Joanne
2016, Interscope

1. Diamond Heart
2. A-Yo
3. Joanne
4. John Wayne
5. Dancin' in Circles
6. Perfect Illusion
7. Million Reasons
8. Sinner's Prayer
9. Come to Mama
10. Hey Girl
11. Angel Down
Bonus Tracks
12. Grigio Girls
13. Just Another Day
14. Angel Down (Work Tape)

So I thought I was kind of done with Lady Gaga after ARTPOP. It wasn't a bad record. I liked it okay and it had some good songs on it. However, overall I didn't like it as much as The Fame or The Fame Monster and I really didn't like but one song on Born This Way. Add to that I though "Perfect Illusion" and "Million Reasons" were...okay. Again, nothing spectacular. Those particular songs grew on me and I eventually ended up getting the album. Which, I must say, is probably her best album yet. Not kidding. There's a maturity and melancholy here on this disc that just wasn't on the previous ones. She also strips things down a bit like on the title track, which is just her voice and acoustic guitar. It's one of the most beautiful songs she's written. Even the radio friendly "pop" songs are great - recalling some of the fun dance tracks from her debut but adding the maturity.  I came away really impressed and happy that it came together like it did. If I had bought it last year it would have been one of my picks for sure.

Useless Fact: Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine lends guest vocals on "Hey Girl."

Lady Gaga - "ARTPOP"

Lady Gaga - ARTPOP
2013, Interscope

1. Aura
2. Venus
3. G.U.Y.
4. Sexxx Dreams
5. Jewels N' Drugs
6. Manicure
7. Do What U Want
8. Artpop
9. Swine
10. Donatella
11. Fashion!
12. Mary Jane Holland
13. Dope
14. Gypsy
15. Applause

Remember way back when I said that there may be more to Lady Gaga than people think? Yeah... I'm pretty sure I was wrong about that. All I have to say is: thank goodness this is better than Born This Way. It's a little bit of a return to The Fame with simple songs about sex... and drugs... and fashion. I also like the catchy electronic/synth-type stuff that made me like her debut so much. Another feature of this album is the dub-step influence in many of the songs. Not that I mind, there's enough melody in here to make it interesting. I will say I absolutely HATE "Jewels N' Drugs" because it's a rap song. The exact kind of rap that I despise. It's completely out of place on this album. Anyway, nothing here is really groundbreaking but it's still infectious and Lady Gaga's still one of the best singers in pop music today. Let's round this out with some observations:

"Do What U Want" is a duet with R. Kelly in which Lady Gaga tells him he can do anything he wants with her body. I'm not really sure that's the person you want to tell that to. Several of these songs appeared on Lady Gaga's Holiday Spectacular (which starred the Muppets). It tanked in the ratings. Probably because the venn diagram intersection of "people who like Lady Gaga" and "people who like the Muppets" includes four people - five at most. Two of those people are my wife and I. Finally, I have the censored Walmart version (because we were there and that's what they had). I find it hilarious that people think you can clean up a song like "Sexxx Dreams" just by removing the word "sex."

Useless Fact: ARTPOP was also inspired by the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods. The sexy ones at any rate. Oh, and that picture on the cover is actually a statue that someone made. And did you know that up to five people wrote some of these songs?

Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"

Lady Gaga - Born This Way
2011, Interscope

1. Marry the Night
2. Born This Way
3. Government Hooker
4. Judas
5. Americano
6. Hair
7. ScheiBe
8. Bloody Mary
9. Bad Kids
10. Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)
11. Heavy Metal Lover
12. Electric Chapel
13. You & I
14. The Edge of Glory

*sigh*

Well... it was nice while it lasted. At least Born This Way was only $1. I loved The Fame. In fact, it was one of my top picks for last year. I don't usually buy pop albums, but Lady Gaga's quirky pop songs were pretty infectious. Sadly, when "Born This Way" came out I didn't like it at all. After all, it's just Madonna's "Express Yourself" with different lyrics. The biggest problem with Born This Way the album is that a majority of the songs here sound just like "Born This Way." What happened to the syncopated beats? The little catchy raps? The simple dirty songs about sex? The cool electronica? Ugh...most everything here is grand and over-produced and, worst of all, not very fun to listen to. The braying in "Americano" is particularly annoying. My favorite songs tend to be the ones that don't sound like "Born This Way" - namely "Government Hooker" (my favorite on the album), "Bloody Mary," and "You & I." That last one there almost sounds like a techno-country song.

I also find the lyrical themes rather tiresome. I get it - we should all love ourselves. You should just be you - whether you're a good person or a total jackass... YOU WERE BORN THAT WAY, BABY! You don't need to change! You don't need to try and be a better person or do any self reflection! Ugh (have I said that already?)! Oh, and let's not forget "Hair" in which Gaga actually sings about her hair. No, really. Her hair and about how free it is. I miss the days when she would just sing about Disco Sticks and dancing. She's also mixing some good ol' Catholicism in with all this self love. Okaaaay... but didn't Madonna do that like decades ago? Suffice to say, I'm not impressed with Born This Way.

Ooh... look... she's a motorcycle!(?)

Useless Fact: There's a few bonus tracks that I missed because I got the $1 download version. Those songs are, "Black Jesus + Amen Fashion," "Fashion of His Love," and "The Queen." Unlike with Panic! at the Disco - I couldn't care less if I have these songs.

Lady Gaga - "The Fame Monster"

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster (Deluxe)

2009, Interscope

Disc One: The Fame Monster

1. Bad Romance

2. Alejandro

3. Monster

4. Speechless

5. Dance in the Dark

6. Telephone

7. So Happy I Could Die

8. Teeth

Disc Two: The Fame

1. Just Dance

2. Lovegame

3. Paparazzi

4. Pokerface

5. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)

6. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich

7. The Fame

8. Money Honey

9. Starstruck

10. Boys, Boys, Boys

11. Paper Gangsta

12. Brown Eyes

13. I Like It Rough

14. Summerboy

Yep. I like Lady Gaga. I like Lady Gaga enough to get this two disc set of The Fame and The Fame Monster. I've always liked pop music. I'm not one of those people that have to change the station when Britney or whoever the flavor-of-the-month (I think it's Rhianna right now) is comes on. Despite my love for metal and bands like Daniel Amos I'm not a musical snob. I like what I like -and I love me a good pop song. Lady Gaga knows how to write good pop songs. Though a good pop song is not enough for me to drop money on an album, so the question remains: why this? Well, I personally think there's a lot more to Lady Gaga than meets the eye. Where most pop divas are influenced by Madonna, Britney, and the like, I think the Lady Gaga is influenced more by the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, and Queen. Think I'm wrong? Watch any live performance she's done - with her crazy outfits and theatrical stage antics (i.e. I remember one on Saturday Night Live where she was wearing a silver jumpsuit with a giant gyroscope around her or something - made it hard for her to play the piano!). Admittedly there's some Madonna in there too, I'll not deny it. And while musically she pretty much stays in the club/dance genre there are a couple tracks like "Speechless" and "Brown Eyes" where you really pick up on that 70's influence too. Then she's got tracks like "Summerboy" which almost sounds like something The Ting Tings or The Cardigans might do. She also gets some more respect from me because unlike Rhianna, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, etc., Lady Gaga can sing - and does. She's never lip-synced any live performance I've seen of hers and she still sounds good. So there. Mock me if you must but I'll stand by my tastes!

Useless Fact: Lady Gaga went to Catholic school... which explains a lot, actually.