Rated: Lady Gaga - Do What U Want Review

R Kelly's ripping off Rihanna's "Eh Eh Eh Eh" on Lady Gaga's new promo single 'Do What U Want', but we'll over look this, for now. This is the moment we've been waiting for from Gaga, something that harks back to her FAME days but moves forward far enough to not sound like a rip off of its predecessors. 'You can't have my heart & you won't use my mind but do what u want with my body' she roars over a metallic rumble and thumping synths. It's a convincing collaboration and it's the finest song she's released since 'Judas'. It's unfortunate it can't chart due to the manner of its release, because 'Venus' is a sad shit of a song in comparison.

4.5/5

Rated Marry the Night

Lady GaGa tantalised us with the brilliant Born This Way earlier in the year. The album has since sold in excess of 7 million copies and generated millions of single sales for the magnificent 'Judas', 'Edge of Glory' and the enormous gay anthem 'Born This Way'. Thankfully things aren't stopping there. 

New cut, 'Marry the Night', is an epic electro dance floor filler. It features some of GaGa's most powerful, ferocious vocals to date and I can only imagine the upcoming music video will be huge. "I'm gonna marry the night, I'm not gonna cry anymore..." sings GaGa on this ode to the New York underground club scene. Dark electric riffs are laid over a series of huge synths as this beast of a track unfolds into an exhilarating break down. 

After the disappointing performance of 'You & I', GaGa could really do with this hitting the top 10. It would be a shame for such a brilliant song to miss out on success, although with 7 million copies of Born This Way sold, it's unlikely there is anyone left to fire this one to the top.

5/5

Rated Born This Way - it's here

It’s potentially the most anticipated album of the decade; Born This Way is finally here. With tonnes of euro-pop charm, bloody weird electro production and some startlingly fantastic moments this has potential to be one of the most unique pop albums since Madonna’s “ground breaking” Ray of Light. 

Lady Gaga erupted into pop consciousness with ‘Just Dance’ in 2008 and then the record breaking/setting ‘Poker Face’, both of which have become contemporary pop anthems. Her initial collection of songs, The Fame, sold over 20 million copies throughout the world. Its sound was quite pop standard, laced with some rnb to keep it brimming with attitude. This commercial, rather chart safe sound soon dissolved however, into the euro-pop styling of the immense ‘Bad Romance’, lifted from the 1.5 album The Fame Monster. With this evolution in Gaga’s sound it became clear that there was something quite special coming next. It's here.

 Born This Way opens with ‘Marry the Night’, homage to Gaga’s nights cruising the New York City underground club scene and how it served as escapism from the sorrows of life. With a soaring electro chorus she beautifully blasts, “I’m gonna marry the night, leave nothin’ on these streets to explode”.

Next up is the single that divided fans, ‘Born This Way’, which is one of the album highlights (but by no means reflective of the album’s sound as a whole). “No matter gay-straight-or bi, lesbian-transgender life, I’m on the right track baby I was born to survive”, has become the key line from the pro-gay anthem. It’s not all about being gay though, this is a song with a dynamic message of equality and self-love, cleverly written and catchy as fuck (I get to swear, Gaga would approve).
Things get dark, dirty and very Berlin discothèque with the hugely anticipated ‘Government Hooker’. Kicking off in semi-operatic fashion the song decends into a decadent array of synthy growls and electric twitching, as Gaga speaks, “Put your hands on me, John F. Kennedy, I’ll make you squeal baby, as long as you pay me”. I’m not quite sure if there’s any intellectual, political message in here, but who cares when it sounds this cool?

Rated The Edge of Glory.

One week to wade through until the most anticipated album (of my life) arrives and gives us all the power to walk on water. Born This Way is hurtling towards us from the Gagaverse. For some perspective, I am a Lady Gaga fan, but I am by no means biased in my opinions of her music. The Fame for example, was a brilliant pop album, let down by some ill-chosen tracks that didn't gel well into it as a whole. This was rectified by the fantastic Fame Monster, which spawned great pop hits like 'Alejandro' and 'Bad Romance'.

Originally released as a promo/taster for the incoming album of life, 'The Edge of Glory' has torn up pop charts all over the world, without having an official release as a single. Kicking off with the pumping of a heart beat, the euro-pop stylings of the 2011 GaGa thump soon after. "I'm on the edge of glory, and I'm hanging on a moment with you", blasts GaGa with some startling vocals. She roars her way through the track, which proves itself to be more exhilarating than the two official singles from the album combined. It's a definite classic, not just for the Lady, but of all time. Well composed, structured, written and most importantly sung, this is a bloody tremendous pop song.

Rated Judas Vidz.

So the Judas video dropped this evening and I love it. It's exactly what I expected and in a totally good way. Poor Gaga is being criticised by followers as trying too hard and being predictable. If she released a video of her sitting bareback on a Sheep's back playing a banjo, they'd complain then too. The fact is that this chick doesn't need to "try hard", she's beyond that stage now. She has so much $ that she could "order China as a takeaway". She piled on the madness in the early stages of her career but that was necessary to garner attention. Now, it's standard Gaga and I don't see why we should expect anything else. Otherwise, she wouldn't be Lady Gaga would she?

WATCH IT HERE

Rated Judas and Born This Way.

There's a lot of discontent with the new GaGa material circulating amongst her fans at the moment. It's amazing how much her sound has evolved since her mega-commercial 'Just Dance' days. This evolution is entirely positive. Lady GaGa has become Lady Euro-Pop, belting out self empowering gay anthems about love, life and gender alteration. What needs to be kept in mind is that the most successful female artist of all time changed her sound (pretty much) with every album. This development kept listeners enticed and kept pop music interesting. Lady GaGa is the Madonna of our generation (I'm 24 - ONLY JUST).

'Born This Way' was an epic slice of pop knobbery and has, since release, notched up well over 100 plays on my ipod. Second single 'Judas' from the upcoming album Born This Way is yet another euro-pop inspired floor filler with one of the gayest sounding choruses in history (but I love it). With 'Bad Romance' style thumping synths this is guaranteed to become top of the list on party playlists the world over. The lyrics are smart and the bravery of using a biblical metaphor is typically GaGa, who is already causing unrest within Christian groups. When this reaches number one she can stick her two, well manicured, fingers up to the fussers and bathe in her ever growing fountain of cash. Jealous.