Lady GaGa – The Fame Monster
| Lady GaGa – The Fame Monster November 18, 2009 |
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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
who is the author to this? who are you? why do you listen to someone you dislike so much?
- Way to assume I dislike Lady GaGa.
- Why would my opinions matter to you if you’re asking all these questions?
- Why are you here and commenting if they don’t matter to you?
Ahaha!
Oh yes. Here am I commenting on an article regarding THE artist I apparently have avoided since the discrete global fawning over “Just Dance”. I have to admit, though–the songs on Gaga’s (GAG-ah?)EP reveal a great amount of the potent pop machine Ms.Germanotta has always been to those who have deliberately turned the other way. Personally, Fame Monster works WAY better than The Fame (where’s “Money Honey” when you need it??)and I’m glad I have attuned to the better half of Lady Gaga’s incipient recording career. Long time no talk, Megumi! Here is another filler on your response pane ^_^.