Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Fame Monster | Lady Gaga

After Lady Gaga's explosion of success with her debut album, The Fame, hopes were set high for her 2009 album, The Fame Monster. Although there are huge differences between The Fame and The Fame Monster (mostly lyricwise), this album will not let you down, no matter what.

The Fame Monster opens nicely with the quirky but serious "Bad Romance". This song is about loving someone for EVERYTHING, even the ugliest, most bizzare parts of their personality. That's probably one of the coolest things Lady Gaga could have done - open her new C.D with a song that tells you, the listener, that she loves you for ever one of your flaws.

"Alejandro" opens with a pretty but sad violin part, leading into a build up of an electronic sound. Even though this is definately not the peppy song on the album, it's one that you'll dance around the room to while croaking out the lyrics as loud as you can. In this song, Lady Gaga says goodbye to past lovers, and corrects them: "Don't call my name, don't call my name..."


The third track is called "Monster". It has most interesting lyrics... Lady Gaga sings "He ate my heart" throughout most of the song, making it better than most pop songs with its unusualness. It's filled with overlapping vocals and has a bouncy and repetative chorus.

"Speechless" follows, and I was surprised when I heard it. The main instrument is piano, and the whole song has a very pleasant vibe - it's classy, out of decade, blues meets The Beatles, mixed with Elton John. What's not to like? It's a great song for everytime of day, chilling out and doing nothing. Lady Gaga's voice is soothing, yet still fierce.

"Dance In the Dark" has a build-up of an intro. It's a meaningful song that you can dance to, just like the other tracks on The Fame Monster, but to me, it's more special than the others, mainly because I can relate to it more. "Dance In the Dark" is the anthem for girls like me that may not be too comfortable in their skin and want to hide (or dance) in the dark. The first time I heard this song and knew what Lady Gaga wrote it about, I wondered if Lady Gaga wrote this just for me. The whole feeling kind of overtook me and I cried during its amazing ending.

The party song of this album is "Telephone" and it's a duet with Beyonce. I'm not a fan of Beyonce, but she did well in this song. It's full of repeated vowels and has cool vocal effects. It ends with a sort of 'finale' of sections of vocals, and finishes with the harp tune it began with. This is the most difficult song from The Fame Monster to find the true meaning to. (Good luck, poets!)

Even though the lyrics to "So Happy I Could Die" are beyond strange and make me worry, it reminds us of something we can all relate to: Being so happy and relaxed. This track is very mellow and quite calmer than the other Gaga songs.

The eighth and last track of The Fame Monster is called "Teeth". An unusual song title for a very bizzare (but very cool) song. I'm not really sure how to describe this song, so bear with me. "Teeth" definately has a sound of its own. In a way, it's like poppy jazz, and somehow Lady Gaga can pull this off, like "Speechless". Not many artists could sound so good doing different styles, but she definately pulls it off without hesitation. One thing I find interesting about it is that Lady Gaga doesn't use stupid metaphors like other pop artists do when they try to talk about sex - she makes it obvious; clear as crystal.

The Fame Monster is full of sounds, styles, and meanings. Each song is completely unique and creative, and I loved it.

4.5/5 stars

1 comment:

  1. If you ask me, this is a full 5/5 stars... or a 97% or so on my scale. It's just a great album, and there's just nothing like it.

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