Lady GaGa – The Fame Monster November 18, 2009
	1. Bad Romance 2. Alejandro 3. Monster 4. Speechless 5. Dance in the Dark 6. Telephone (featuring Beyoncé) 7. So Happy I Could Die 8. Teeth

I have a love-hate relationship with Lady GaGa. Sometimes her music is addictive; sometimes she’s absolutely boring. This particular relationship seems to be a theme for this new disc on this rereleased version of The Fame. In many ways, this is a stronger, more concise release from this diva. In other ways, it can be more underwhelming than her first full album release. Difference? She’s now a free bitch, apparently.

We begin, of course, with the lead single for the disc, Bad Romance, which is probably one of the more lively tracks on the album, but also one of the most horrendous overuse of nasal tones from Ms. Germanotta. Every time she goes into the “Rah Rah” nonsense, I feel like puking because of just how terrible she sounds and just how absolutely cheesy the line is. It’s almost as bad as her “Cherry cherry boom boom” from her first album. Of course, she insists on singing this entire verse through her nose, emphasizing as much as she can every possible nasal tone she can muster. This is obviously done on purpose, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying or puke-inducing. THAT aside, the contents of the song (aside from the previously mentioned nonsense of the “Rah-Rah-ing”) the song is actually quite catchy and the melodic contents of the song just barely make up for the singing. Unlike some of the other tracks on this disc, this song is actually fun and has quite a good use of synthesizers, especially regarding the introduction of the song and the synthesizer beats on the offbeats of the verses. Her singing is much more bearable in the chorus, of course. In fact, the chorus is one of the reasons why I do enjoy this track — I’ve spent hours having it in my head. One of the more amusing parts of the song is definitely when she does a type of auditory catwalk in the bridge. She seriously makes it work in the song and she does it with attitude. Too bad the arrangement can be quite bland (aside from the offbeat electronic beats in the verses) and it really doesn’t nothing for me. I still have a love-hate relationship with this track because there’s stuff I like in it, and there’s stuff I really dislike about it.

Alejandro fares a lot better for me in comparison. It’s a more laid-back track with a beautiful violin solo at the beginning and Lady GaGa trying to fake a foreign accent. That part’s pretty embarassing because her fake accent is pretty terrible (but really quite hilarious), but ignore that and you have a gorgeous violin part. I quite like the atmosphere of this track. It has a bit of a dreamy quality in the timbre of the background sounds. Lady Gaga’s voice works with this track so that it doesn’t stand out too much for the nature of the track but her performance is solid here and pretty straightforward. I can’t help but feel like swaying along with this little piece. Unlike the opening track, I actually appreciate the song as a whole. It’s a bit dreamy in quality but the drums add a nice heavier quality to a song that could have easily have been really dreary if it wasn’t done adequately. Lady Gaga not only pulls it off in the atmosphere of the track, the melody itself is memorable and the singing is decent.

I’m not too fond of the full electronic songs on this album at all. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what stands out about Monster even if I wanted to. The track is bland and cold and it still hasn’t stuck in my mind after a few listens of the EP. It’s a pretty heavy on the voice effects as Lady Gaga’s voice is autotuned so that she sounds almost soulless and uninteresting. This track is four minutes and a half and I personally really don’t care at all throughout the whole song. It has a dreamy quality like Alejandro but it’s nowhere as memorable and the singing is bland and uninterested into what’s happening in the track. Lady Gaga doesn’t seem to care at all about this track because not only does this track sound half-hearted, the elements of the track repeat themselves over and over again without really bringing anything for me to latch onto as a something I actually like about the track. This is entirely a disappointment after listening to “Alejandro” especially since some parts of the track is actually quite catchy (especially the bit before she goes into the whole whomever is a monster parts — I really like the amount of emphasis she actually puts on those rhythms, especially in comparison to the almost disinterestedness of the rest of the chorus). This track bores me, unfortunately.

Speechless is Lady Gaga’s attempt at a kind of piano ballad. There’s something a bit artificial and a bit overly Broadway-esque about her presentation (showy for the sake of being showy), but that’s not entirely bad. The vocals seem a little dishonest and unsincere considering the lyrics, but I can attribute this with the fact that she’s mostly worked with “showy” venues early in her career. It’s probably the first track on the EP where Lady Gaga sings out a bit more and the results are pretty good. This track shows that she’s really quite a solid singer because she really doesn’t have much problem with the tune of the track and she adds a bit of variety at small moments of the melody (although she mostly sings the track in the same kind of way). It’s a strong song and a bit of a surprise from the usual meaningless danceable tracks she focuses on.

Dance in the Dark is a slightly improved version (read: slightly more interesting) of the electronic sounds in “Monster” although in a much more upbeat way. It has that kind of same echoed quality to it, and the “free bitch” bit comes back again. It starts off well enough with the grungey sounds mixed with Gaga mumbling and moaning and some dude stuttering in the background. The electronic elements and the beat is actually quite catchy at the beginning, but I really start to care a little less as the verse comes in and I really can’t get myself to like it that much aside from the little bit before the chorus comes in. Then the chorus comes in and I wonder what kind of terrible transition just happening in between the verse and the chorus. The melody really does nothing for me. Unlike “Monster”, I do like some elements of the arrangement because I do find some of it potentially enjoyable. I really couldn’t care less about whatever Lady Gaga is singing on this track though. I still don’t care about this track, but I still find it more enjoyable than the title track of this EP.

I’ve been hearing Telephone so much on the radio for the past song. It’s actually one of the track I do like somewhat on this track. It’s an amusing mix of electronic with a R&B flavour to it, and unlike a few of the melodies on this album so far, this one makes some kind of linear sense and contains something for me to latch onto (aside from the obvious Beyoncé influences in the track). Lady Gaga performs this track really quite well actually despite it not because difficult rangewise. This track is more like the tracks on The Fame in that is relies a lot more on shorter rhythms in the melody, which brings a lot of energy into Lady Gaga’s singing because she actually pays attention to accents when it comes to these kinds of melodies. The two girls work together pretty well, which supports the fact that Lady Gaga is really quite a good overall singer with a few bad tendencies. I don’t know what’s with Beyoncé and having the ability to sound really obnoxious when she sing-talks (see around 1:30) but I always find it irritating when she does that and the “stuttered” effect is a little bit overdone at times in this track. However, this is an addictive, well-performed and fun track.

I’m not a big fan of So Happy I Could Die either. This is another attempt at a kind of eletronic midtempo track with the same kind of effects “Monster” and “Dance in the Dark” had with the same lack of conviction from Lady Gaga. This is another point in the album where I immediately go and fall asleep. The “Eh” parts that repeat themselves in the track really don’t help at all and despite the track being thick of a lot of sounds and whatever, it doesn’t really have much substance in the track aside from a pleasant melody. How bland of you, Lady Gaga. This track never fails to make me want to fall asleep and go and not care for the next four minutes. The repetitions get more and more irritating and pointless as the song goes on.

Teeth is probably the strangest song on the EP, and I like it because it’s weird, interesting and really quite fun to listen to. It’s a dark track with a pounding beat full of chanting and simple focus on a basic beat. Lady Gaga sings this track far more attitude than I’ve heard her do for most of this album and this is probably what I missed the most from her debut album. Her performance is convincing and the little chorus-singing in the background really add to the track. This is probably my favourite track vocally off this album. In addition, although the track seems pretty straightforward, Lady Gaga adds and takes out some elements in the background, including some trumpet blasts that come in and out of the track. It’s quite a strong ending track and ridiculously addictive to boot.

My reaction to The Fame Monster pretty much defines my ambivalence of Lady Gaga: she can sometimes be a fantastic artist and she can sometimes be really bland and irritating. Lady Gaga’s singing isn’t quite as solid as her debut album as she can be really bland and unconvincing as a vocalist for most of them album, partially because she’s hidden herself under a multitude of effects on a lot of the tracks on the EP. I was not nearly as interested in her vocally here. Conversely, The Fame Monster demonstrates a much stronger appeal to herself as a songwriter as this EP contains material that is much more daring than her debut album and lyrics that aren’t nearly as thoroughly cringeworthy (although she still has her moments). I’m a little troubled with some of the overproducing making some of the tracks sound a bit too “noisy”, especially when it begins to mask any emotion, energy and sincerity from her singing in some of these tracks. I’m not too sure if the bland singing is a result from the original recording of her vocals or the aftereffect of the production. In any case, the results of this EP are either rather addictive or rather bland.

Favourites:
Alejandro

Artist: Lady GaGa
Album: The Fame
Release Date: August 19, 2008

1. Just Dance
Lady GaGa’s first single makes for the perfect opening track from its light synth opening sequence. The song itself is rather midtempo, but she does a good job keeping a general pulse throughout the song. The opening synth sequence becomes an underlying sound throughout the song. Other than that, it’s mainly a basic bass synth line keeping the song going with a slighly syncopated rhythm underneath the melody. The melody itself is rather linear, but it remains catchy throughout the song. Lady GaGa’s voice, while the melody isn’t very challenging, she hits the notes and keeps a well-supported tone throughout the song. While the song is rather repetitive, Lady GaGa keeps the variety by adding sections to the song. Halfway through, we have one of the featured artists under a slight voice filter having his own little verse before going back into the chorus, with him wailing over it. I love the little synth breakdown after the chorus, and before Lady GaGa’s little speaking part of the song. The echo effect in the bridge is rather cool to listen to. She has two lines of her saying the same thing, but one of the lines is slightly behind the other one. The lyrics are also amusing.

2. LoveGame
This is the song that I also know as the song Selly keeps quoting over MSN. Other than the infamous “disco stick” lyrics, the song is continues the trend of really catchy synth songs. I really like how Lady GaGa’s speaks the opening likes and emphasizes the rhythms and words while she does it. While she isn’t singing, she still keeps the natural accents in the passage, and I like how cleanly she pronounces the “k” in “sick”. The two lines of her speaking and the synth underneath is actually quite a neat use of rhythms, especially the syncopation in the synths underneath. The grunting after she does the intro twice is amusing, but somehow it works with introducing the basic beat into the song. The grunting makes its way into the rest of the song, as well. Again, while Lady GaGa’s melodies are rather linear, she keeps the accents and presents the melodies in an interesting manner. Her higher notes suffer a bit from poor pitching, but she keeps most of the melody in her comfortable range. Her tone isn’t as clean as the previous song, and works more with speak-sing type of voice, which can be a bit annoying or unpleasant at times. I don’t find the song quite as catchy as the previous one, but it’s still a fun song. I especially like the chorus, even if it’s her saying the title of the song over and over again, she plays with the rhythms nicely in it. The amusing thing in this song is in the bridge when she uses the grunts to fill in lyrics. This is where Bretty’s imagination goes wild (not that it isn’t already).

3. Paparazzi
The lyrics of this song are kind of creepy. That aside, this is the first track that is vaguely close to being a ballad of any sort. The song is midtempo, and it opens with a whole bunch of dissonant synth lines dancing in and out of the background. Lady GaGa sings in her usual manner with the constant accents in the verse melody, but this time with a little more sense of legato from her. Her tone at times feels like she’s closing up her airway a bit too much, especially the line heading into the chorus, which becomes a bit too nasally and quite unpleasant to listen to. The chorus is much smoother than the previous two songs, and sings a bit more like a ballad, albeit kind of creepy at the same time. She uses more airy tones for her high notes, and while doing so, doesn’t sound all that pleasant, but it does make the song all the more creepy. Either way, I like the melody of the song quite a bit, especially how she presents the title of the song. The synths in the background mostly play long notes, while there’s one in the background bouncing in the background, changing the note with the chord changes. As creepy as I find the lyrics, the melody is really quite pleasant to listen to. I don’t care for the bridge at all, as Lady GaGa sounds terrible as she goes into her chanting mode, which really sounds out of place. That said, this will be the only instance where Lady GaGa pulls off the ballad on this album.

4. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
The commas in the title confuse me, as she mostly sounds like she’s saying Beautiful and Dirty Rich throughout the song, and not that they’re Beautiful, Dirty and Rich. I DIGRESS. Lady GaGa starts off by saying the words in the title individually, and with repetition for the latter two words in the title, but she does it in a way that is rather catchy right from the beginning. The drums comes in after that as she repeats someone similar. Her singing here is better as she comes in over the percussion, and some occasional dissonant piano lines. The prechorus is awkward sounding and transitions poorly into the catchy chorus. The second time around, it’s just annoying to listen to, which the chorus does very little to fix, despite the addictive bass line through the chorus. The bridge continues the chaos in the song as she rambles on and on with the words in the title and repeats “bang, bang, bang”. This song sounds like a poor cut and paste job with some kind of catchy chorus amongst the chaos. Seriously.

5. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
This track opens with staccato synth lines going up and down between notes as the song proves to be some sort of synth reggae-influenced song with some of the bouncy lines, with a sort of calm, island vibe to it. Lady GaGa sounds decent in this song, and the melody is decent, although the prechorus transitions poorly into the chorus. However, something about rhyming “Say” with “Eh” bugs me a bit too much that I wouldn’t want to listen to this song all the way through. There’s only so much “Eh”-ing that I can handle in a song, but it being the main lyric in a song is just really annoying. Music-wise, this is one of the better slow songs on this album, and Lady GaGa pulls off this song in a decent manner, but not without being annoying. Melody-wise, it’s a pleasant little tune and it falls into the category of bland music.

6. Poker Face
Enter single number two from Lady GaGa. It opens with a light little synth before layering stronger, grungier synths over it, and some man going “MUH MUH MUH MUH” in the background, which proves to be rather amusing for no apparent reason, to the point where you might find me imitating him along with the music. The melody is really quite linear in the verse, and Lady GaGa does something weird with her voice where it sounds like she just slurs everything and fails to enunciate, which actually amuses me more than annoys me. It does create an interesting effect when she does some lines in her usual voice before going back to her somehow clear mumbly voice (err yeah, somehow that works). Then we have the “OHHH WOOOO” parts of the songs, which somehow make the song immensely more dramatic than it was previously. Of course, I love it because it makes it amusingly more dramatic as it builds up ~drama~ for the chorus, where she suddenly remembers how to enunciate. Of course, the ~drama~ builds up even more because she belts out, and she does it well at the same time. The MUH-MUH-MUH man appears in the background vocals here as well. The catchiest part of the song is, for me, the rhythmic fun with the title of the song, which is bound to stay in your head after hearing your friend imitate Lady GaGa while driving (although not as amusing as hearing her chant every line in SexyBack). The bridge proves to be even more amusing as she rhymes bluffing with muffin, and says something about something being just like a chicken (mumble mumble) casino (I should really look up the lyrics sometime). That said, this song is amusing and catchy at the same time.

7. The Fame
The guitar gets featured in this next upbeat song, and it’s pulled off really well as both the melody and the accompaniment keep the song going forward really well with the general pulse of the song, despite the fact that the guitar basically repeats itself throughout the song. Like the rest of Lady GaGa’s songs, synth makes itself into the song, although it’s only occasionally pops into the song. I really like how she adds vocal layers for certain lines of the song to emphasize them. Another aspect that this song has that a lot of her songs so far so far has is a really catchy manipulation of the title of the song. The bridge changes the sound of the song a bit by adding dated synths and beats to it. Lady GaGa pulls off repetition nicely in this track.

8. Money Honey
This next track chooses a grungier sound from the synths for the introduction, and it becomes the basic underlying accompaniment for this track, but it never becomes tiring. One of the reasons for this is because of the rather interesting way Lady GaGa presents this track. The verses are sung is a rather diva-esque, slightly melismatic manner. It’s nice to hear her sing in a stronger manner, even if it’s vaguely reminiscence of Christina Aguilera’s style of singing and tone in general. Either way, she sings well in this track and it fits the sound of this song. The interesting part of the song is the chorus, which is not only ridiculously addictive, but she decides to chant certain words in a higher pitch, which actually adds to the addictiveness of the chorus (although most people will find it annoying). I also like how she decided to sing the word “delicious”, rather than chant like she did in the other.

9. Again Again
Lady GaGa strips off the thick synth accompaniment for this next track for more of a Soul sound for this next track, and she pulls it off quite nice. Her voice is full, well-supported from the beginning and this track shows off a stronger vocal from Lady GaGa. There are points where she lets her tone become a bit too harsh, especially when she does the “Again and again” parts. Similar tone problems show up throughout the song in terms of singing it a bit too much as if she was speaking. However, other than her vocals, I don’t find that this song stands out all that much as she mostly sings the same way the whole way through, and the song repeats itself over and over without really catching my attention in terms of the song itself.

10. Boys Boys Boys
This next track is one of my favourites off this album. It starts off with glamourous-sounding synths before Lady GaGa goes right into the linear melody of the verse. Again, Lady GaGa pulls off the accents and rhythms quite well. The “I like you a lot, lot” lines are really catchy for some reason, and was randomly stuck in my head after I listened to the album the first time through. As usual, she does these lines while chanting, while the verses are sung. I also like how she does the words “crazy” and “baby” in the first verse, so that they sound similar; they’re pronounced a bit like Curazy, and Buaby, with the sweep on the first two syllables. The chorus goes with the title going in between every line, and includes chanting of a chorus of Lady GaGas going “We love them!”. I don’t care for the chanting in the bridge, but the rest of the song is rather catchy.

11. Brown Eyes
Lady GaGa goes for another piano ballad here, and the results are rather disastrous. While she has a good grasp as to how to present her upbeat songs, this tracks shows off how she’s incapable to presenting a heartfelt ballad. Her pitch in this track goes everywhere. She ends up over enunciating everything to the point where it affects her pitch and puts a bit too much of the harsh sounds of her accent into the singing, making her singing harsh, unpleasant and just poorly sung overall too the point where it’s just really distracting. Lady GaGa ends up sounding like a tone deaf karaoke singer in this track.

12. Summerboy
Lady GaGa follows the last mediocre track with more mediocre singing in this next track. This tracks starts off promising with the catchy, upbeat guitar riffs. It all sounds fine until Lady GaGa sings her first few notes, and it’s evident that she’s under the pitch. It probably doesn’t help that the melody just sounds really awkward from beginning and fails to flow in any sense as it has random jumps, which are poorly sung. The chorus fares a bit better with the linear sequence. The rest of the song repeats the same problems the second time around, and I’m even more horrified as I have to listen to it all over again. The ending is better because all she does is repeat the chorus over and over again. Yeah, this is one of the tracks I don’t ever listen to because it is rather painful.

13. I Like It Rough (Bonus Track)
The bonus track of this track has a bit of a lighter sound to it when compared to other Lady GaGa songs, but it still has a prominent synth backing. It lacks the heavy beats and reliance of heavily accented beats, but nevertheless, Lady GaGa pulls it off. It’s a bit more typical, but it’s still a good song to listen to. The melody flows nicely throughout, but there’s nothing overly notable about the arrangement or presentation. Nevertheless, it’s a solid song, although nowhere as interesting as some of the tracks on the album.

Overall -
Favourite Track: Boys Boys Boys
Lady GaGa has gotten a lot of attention since her debut, and rightfully so. Her album is full of addictive hooks and polished production work. A lot of her songs are presented in an interesting manner and are really fun to listen to. Lady GaGa is quite a good singer, although not without her flaws, which can be seen in how she presents “Brown Eyes”. Nevertheless, she’s got a solid vocal for most of the album, and I like how she varies the way she does the vocals from various ways of chanting and singing. She also has a good hold of how to work really catchy rhythms into her upbeat songs, and she pulls them off very well stylistically. Sure, Lady GaGa has some ridiculous subject matters and lyrics permeating her album, but that doesn’t change the fact that most of it is just ridiculously catchy despite several pitfalls in the album, most of which are overshadowed by the mere catchiness of some of these songs. However, if you’re looking for something intelligent to listen to, steer clear. While some of Lady GaGa’s productions are quite interesting, her lyrics will probably make you feel like you’re getting dumber by the minute, which I probably am from having “I like you a lot, lot / I think you’re really hot, hot” in my head all the time or imagining really bad drunken dancing for “Just Dance”.