Lady Gaga, as she were, May 2011

Anyone who knows me and my tastes in music knows that amongst the vast sea to which I listen, waves crashing upon the shore, Lady Gaga is certainly a larger wave.  More to the point, anyone who has read these two past articles (seeing as how the older one, a review of The Fame, is from 2009, I'm clearly digging).

Hah, remember when I used to open all of my posts with quotes from old plays and literature.  Those were the days, or I think it only lasted like a month or two, whatevs, it was a fun time.  It was just getting too forced and, well, difficult to keep finding apt quotes for whatever I was writing.  The Gaga one, however, was hella apt.



In both the quote and the post I compare The Fame to the story of Faust -- the man who sold his soul to the devil for power (the particulars change from story to story, Thomas Mann's tells of a musician, Marlowe's a doctor, Oscar Wilde's a dandy).  Being as there was only one full length studio album of hers at the time (a demo ep and a few compilations made up everything else), there was no real context for anything, and the album stood on its own.  It was its own entity, and it told a Faustian tale.

The Fame Monster came shortly thereafter, and was kind of like an addition to the fame, a second disc, an extra EP in a similar vein.  It midly subverted my assumptions of the Faustian tale that exists underneath, but never totally.  The music and the singing were both more produced and polished, but it still had more or less the same feel.  It was a bit like comparing Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac -- variants on a theme.  I can probably guarantee you that will be the only time you will ever see Gaga and Radiohead compared to one another.

However, overall, my feelings on The Fame Monster were that it was perhaps a bit too long, a bit too thin.  Maybe it would have been better suited as a smaller stand alone EP.  This, in and of itself, wouldn't be too important except for what I am going to say next.

Maybe she herself is getting spread too thin.  With all of the touring and promoting, I'm not sure she is getting time to actually produce and write a coherent album.  She's not getting much opportunity to take things past the conceptual stage.

Lady Gaga, as an operation, is really done as a collective.  She is the main songwriter and performer, CEO and organizer, etc.  My assumption is most of the non-Gaga duties live in the realm of the actual execution of the imagery.  Being a musician, she would probably be at least writing skeletons of songs (a general structure, something for producers to hang sounds on), and she probably has a good hand in conceiving the visual ideas, but I doubt she spends hours creating these costumes and sets.

Anyways, my point is, that is where Gaga is thriving.  Gaga has become crazy costumes, crazy ideas, and crazy sets.

Of the three songs released so far, only one seems like a standout song in any capacity ("Born This Way"), and by her own admission, it uses the same disco/dance chord progression that hasn't really been used in America since the 80s (save her own "Allejandro").  More importantly perhaps is why it seemed like such a standout song -- it was anthemic, yes, but it seemed like it was setting a story for the album, which the other two songs only weakly support.  "Judas" does so more strongly, but seems more forced and plot oriented, like one would find in a musical, following dialogue about a betrayal of some kind.

This supports my theory that she is being spread too thin, that she isn't really given time to let ideas steep and develop.  The image department will carry on without her, and she will continue to put on great and grand shows, but I'm curious if she will continue to produce great music if she is constantly being pressed from all ends like now.

When I first saw the long form video for "Born This Way", I was psyched.  It seemed like some sort of Rush's 2112 dystopian sci fi mash up with like a Brave New World-ish story-line, and of course, dance beats.  Instead it's now just looking like she's become her own Faustian victim (a-la The Fame) -- putting out whatever to adoring and unjudging fans (demonically named "monsters") who readily consume it (see, I didn't forget about Faust, there was a point).

I'm not saying I am no longer a Gaga fan, I'm just saying I am one of the judging ones -- and she could be doing better.

Maybe I should just shut up and wait for the album.

-- Knuttel

Just for the hell of it, here's the Born This Way video.