Two weeks ago Lady Gaga released her third record here in the States, Artpop. While sonically it feels very familiar, thematically it feels worlds away. While The Fame is a mostly forgettable dance record that just happens to have three perfect songs on it and Born This Way is a celebration of life, Artpop walks a different path, and it's kind of a bummer.
In broad terms, Artpop is a familiar story: artist loses self in the excesses of stardom, only to shake it all off because in the end the only thing that matters is the fans. It's pandering in a way that an artist with a dedicated fan base like Gaga really doesn't need to do at this point in her career, so it must be how she really feels.
Except that if you really pay attention to what's going on in the album, that's not how she feels at all. If Artpop is supposed to be a snapshot of how Gaga feels in the year 2013, then the message is clear: Lady Gaga hates being Lady Gaga.
Before we can get to the ending revelation, we have to talk a bit about emotion and vocal delivery.
Artpop is an emotionally flat record, and that's by design. Gaga spends a lot of it sounding bored out of her mind, but that's all part of the story she's trying to tell; after all, she's singing about being bored of the sex and drugs that come along with the rock and roll, so she can't really sound too excited about either. It's a choice that leads to a lot of weird moments, like when "Do What You Want" should be an empowering anthem but is instead just a really good mid-'90s R&B track.
This whole sort general disinterest builds over the course of the album, through some nice highs ("G.U.Y.", "Manicure") and some of the worst tracks of her career ("Jewels n' Drugs", "Fashion!"), all leading up to what is the emotional core of the record.
Think about Born This Way this way for a moment. Remember how she sounded engaged across the entire record, from "Marry the Night" all the way through "Edge of Glory"? Even silly songs like "Highway Unicorn" were charming due to the fact that she was clearly having a ball with the album. Yeah, not a lot of that on Artpop.
But at last the emotion does arrive.
Story continues on the next page.