Released November 6, 2013
6 / 10
Favorites
Aura, Swine, Donatella, Gypsy, Applause
Least Favorites
Jewels N' Drugs, MANiCURE, Dope
“I’m not a wandering slave, I am a woman of choice.” If it wasn’t clear enough, Gaga reminds the listener of ARTPOP who’s in charge within its first couple of minutes. Her third studio album, decidedly geared for club exposure, had large shoes to fill: Gaga promised something brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique - setting herself and fans up for disappointment. ARTPOP is certainly no Hounds of Love. Now, it’s also far from the disaster-meme it’s been turned into upon closer inspection. Gaga oozes confidence amongst a busy soundscape ready to take over at any sign of vocal weakness. Luckily, she’s not known for those. ARTPOP’s Achilles’ heel is ambition: execution doesn’t always match the vision - which might in itself not have been 20/20 from the jump.
The electronic universe molded by Madeon, Zedd and DJ White Shadow is almost complete on its own. The added vocals from Gaga are rarely overpowered but they can sound superfluous. It’s really a wonder her label didn’t release an accompanying instrumental album in the years since - although they have more to answer for regarding what retrospectively feels like ARTPOP’s particularly weak promotional cycle for an artist of Gaga’s caliber. ‘Aura’s serpentine progression from mariachi to dubstep and EDM adds up to what can feel like 3 or 4 songs in 1. ‘G.U.Y’ drills into pop territory to unearth techno sonic subtexts, consolidating the feeling that ARTPOP’s ammo is not subtlety - and actually quite the opposite. The power-bottom anthem reveals a chorus where the combination of vocals and electronics doesn’t live up to their individual potential - Zedd’s production erases parts of Gaga’s vocals to the detriment of the track. Trap outlier ‘Jewels n’ Drugs’ features some golden instrumentals that are unfortunately difficult to match - and again would make a great addition to ‘ARTPOP: The Instrumental Version’. T.I. doesn’t seem to have too hard a time standing out, as does Twista while Too $hort and Gaga are left behind. As much as she tries, Gaga’s hip hop experiment falls flat despite some stellar guest moments. Madeon is a bit too heavy-handed production-wise on ‘Mary Jane Holland’. Gaga barely holds her own on an aggressive dance backdrop (that regularly turns foreground). The track’s bridge offers some respite just in time for the delivery of some of her best lyrics, starting with “I know that Mom and Dad think I’m a mess / But it’s alright, because I am rich as piss”.
ARTPOP is many things. Boring is not one of them. Gaga sustains excitement throughout with an uncanny unpredictability both in between and within. Even as a track unfolds, rare are the times when the path to the song’s conclusion is clear before nearing the end. ‘Aura’s unusual combination of influences create a hybrid of a banger whose throbbing beats never give away its conclusion. The synthpop journey of ‘Venus’ is another example of the unforeseeable. It receives ‘Aura’s energy and doesn’t drop the ball with its anthemic chorus - that she serves in small doses the first time around only to give a longer version the next to satisfy mindless listener greed. Its bridge is either genius or distracting - I tend to think it’s the latter. And the synth could use a bit more umph on the pre-chorus. Oh and it’s also the only track solely produced by Lady Gaga. Almost foreshadowing the ‘A Star Is Born’ soundtrack, the lyrically denser ‘Gypsy’ starts with one of the strongest melodies of the whole record. Destined to become a fan favorite deep cut, it deserves its own official karaoke video. The electropop turn it takes is also one that can take by surprise after preceding stripped chaotic neutral mess ‘Dope’: it warms up from a piano ballad to an epic dance anthem particularly artfully - this time Madeon and Gaga’s collaboration hits the nail right on its head. Also, vocals (!). ( (!) as in a good (!), not a bad (!) ) ‘Donatella’, on the other hand, is more straightforward melodically and instrumentally - no less of a banger though. Bellowing electronics and a thumping beat support a typical Gaga perspective: there’s almost always a cynic undertone to the lyrics; even in celebration mode, Stefani sees the dark flip side - she sings “Tailor these clothes to fit your guilt”: eat it, Versace.
There’s unpredictable and then there’s messy. Some tracks on ARTPOP sound so ADHD-ridden as they switch focal points before anything can come into focus. ‘MANiCURE’ throws in a bunch of pop rock cliches and elements of trap, hoping they’ll play nice together. SPOILER: they don’t. The track brings The Veronicas to mind... need I say more?
There’s no denying Gaga’s work ethic. More than that, as said by the popstar herself only recently, “My biggest enemy is me” (911, Chromatica). Her grit is a double-edged sword: it makes the highs all the more rewarding and the lows more excruciating. The latters then don’t sound like flukes: they sound like someone buried under the music before they could get out in time to prevent, uhm, ‘choices’ to pile on top of one another. The R&B-synth pop ‘Sexxx Dreams’ is the sound of Gaga trying. A lot. The mix of spoken word with the singing, a skit-like interlude and figurative lyrical misfires point to something that didn’t come naturally. In another context, “we’re both convicted criminals of thought” - which some have interpreted as a George Orwell interpolation - could fly under the radar. Here it sits with lines like “Wanna meet at my place?”, “Damn, you were in my sex dreams” and “Let’s keep it naughty”. It sticks out like a cold sore - which for some reason I just googled, don’t do it. ‘Swine’ sounds like a lot of ideas coming together as well but the pay-offs are high in this case. The emotional baggage at its root makes it all the more potent across its dynamic ebbs and flows. The track acts like a big middle finger to the abuses of the patriarchy - in particular her rape by an older producer when she was 19. Her vocals are incredible as vehicles of anger, disgust and determination atop mean electronic arrangements. A truly great blend of EDM, dubstep and pop music, ‘Swine’ is also catchy as hell.
Ultimately, Gaga opens lead single and album closer ‘Applause’ with the lines: “I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong / To crash the critics saying ‘Is it right or is it wrong?’”. So let me ask you: which is it?
Comments