Swine is dreadful and the biggest comedown possible after the life enhancement qualities of the first eight tracks.

'Dope' is beautiful :wub:

Artpop really is motherf***ing majestic.

Mary Jane Holland. 3 mins mark. YES. AMAZING

Fashion >>>>>> Fashion!

Applause (DJ White Shadow Electrotech Remix) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Applause

erm EVERYONE knows the Purity Ring remix BEATS ALL.

Well this exceeded expectations and then some :'(

 

'Gypsy' is STUNNING.

 

Trying to be sans loon glasses but it's so well produced and her vocals are the best they've ever been. A huge step-up and growth from 'Born This Way' (not saying it's better than that just yet, though i probably will prefer it to that in the near future it's just far too early to even begin comparing). The tracks i found a bit meh on first listen were 'MANiCURE', 'ARTPOP', 'Fashion!' and 'Dope' the rest pretty much blew everything out of the water. SO proud.

 

Quirky and stylish in just the right measures.

A growth from BTW? I think it's a major regression. Some of the songwriting is just so weak or sloppy. Nothing with a chorus as downright LIMP as G.U.Y. would even have been considered for BTW. And what's with the oh so 2011 dubstep/trap/edm breakdowns on various songs? DJ White Shadow needs to go. Some of the songs sound so ugly. MJH is a disaster.

 

I love Aura but we've had it forever. Gypsy is an instant classic. The melody is so much stronger than any other on the album. She needs somebody to reign her in, sit her down and do an album full of those. This record will only alienate the casual fans even further.

 

6/10 I think is a fair score overall.

Really agree with Jark that this album's such a disappointment. It's really production-focused - and while that worked for BTW a lot of the time when the tracks did that (Government Hooker/Scheiße et al), here most of it is incredibly repetitive. It's virtually unlistenable by the twentieth time they wheel out that sodding Work Bitch production that sounds like a grinder having a fit - it totally obliterates Mary Jane Holland, which has a genuinely transcendental middle eight which is utterly ruined by the rest of the track.

 

Worst of all, there are so many times when the production seems to come at the expense of melody. And don't get me started on the lyrics. For an album aspiring to be art as much as this one, what does this album have to say exactly? Where you can make out a theme it just seems to be a limp retread of previous topics already covered on The Fame/Monster.

 

As an album it does have some fabulous pop moments - G.U.Y., MANiCURE, Sexxx Dreams and Gypsy are all wonderful. But it's painful to listen to the great moments because they show that she does still have it in her, but she just chooses to use her creative freedom to let DJ White Shadow cack all over everything. Someone fire the producers, bring back on board someone who understands the importance of melody, and rein her in a bit. Gypsy's the obvious next single, Sexxx Dreams is really the only viable one after that, but this album won't do a thing to stop her from isolating everyone outside the monsters.

OMG. Could someone send me a link please? :)

I MIGHT DIE HAVING TO WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW FOR THIS :(((

05 Aura - still not feeling the shouty verses, which just serves to heighten my annoyance at this having one of the best choruses on the album

06 Venus - Still like it for the 'lolz' even if it's technically shit

08 GUY - That chorus is already stuck in my head and THAT MIDDLE 8 *.*

06 Sexxx Dreams - another victim of 'shit verses, brilliant chorus'

00 Jewels N Drugs - just a steaming turd in every way

07 Manicure - I like this one, but kind of forgot about it by the time the album was over

09 Do What U Want - Could easily grow to a 10 over time, already in my Gaga top 10.

09 Artpop - Could do with the chorus perhaps having a little more lift, but it's nice to have something that's content with just being a plain GREAT POP SONG without trying, and failing, to be something more like much of the album

03 Swine - that hideous build up to that hideous electronic bit is truly awful

05 Donatella - A fun mess, but not something I can see myself ever having the urge to play

05 Fashion - again, a bit of a mess

08 Mary Jane Holland - I'm not sure why everyone else hates this, I mean it's shit lyrically but so is most of the album. It's got one of the most memorable hooks on here.

05 Dope - Usually I HATE her piano ballad moments but her voice isn't totally awful on this as it is on the rest so that's good I guess.

08 Gypsy - Sounds like it WANTS to be The Edge Of Glory but doesn't quite reach such lofty heights and the 'tonight' bridge coupled with that production sounds pretty generic and ill fitting

08 Applause - sounds better within the context of the album, but I still don't get particularly excited by it

 

I came out of it liking quite SURPRISED. I was expecting to dislike it much more than I do. I mean a lot of the songs are still ruined by the shitty production (Swine being the main culprit) but there's less of the NASTY SHOUTING than I was expecting. I'll probably only stick with 5 tracks (Gypsy, Artpop, Do What U Want, Mary Jane Holland, GUY, possibly Manicure too), but I only have two I listen to from Born This Way so I'm taking that as a $ucce$$.

 

(COPIED AND PASTED FROM MOOPY)

Going on some of the comments, why the need for a big message out of the album? That's what alienated so many people in the last era. I'm shocked she seems to be having so much fun on the record. I agree it's severely overproduced for the most part but with such insane highlights it's an even bigger rollercoaster of a listen than 'Born This Way' with a whole heap of FUN added in for good measure. There's a fair bit of stuff that will get the casual listeners back on board but choosing the singles correctly will be the important factor behind that. Very slightly obsessed.

 

My only issue is some of the ordering. Like 'Sexxx Dreams' into 'Jewels and Drugs' just doesn't work and it could have ended on almost as euphoric a conclusion as 'The Edge of Glory' achieved with BTW if 'Gypsy' was the final track.

Going on some of the comments, why the need for a big message out of the album? That's what alienated so many people in the last era. I'm shocked she seems to be having so much fun on the record. I agree it's severely overproduced for the most part but with such insane highlights it's an even bigger rollercoaster of a listen than 'Born This Way' with a whole heap of FUN added in for good measure. There's a fair bit of stuff that will get the casual listeners back on board but choosing the singles correctly will be the important factor behind that. Very slightly obsessed.

 

My only issue is some of the ordering. Like 'Sexxx Dreams' into 'Jewels and Drugs' just doesn't work and it could have ended on almost as euphoric a conclusion as 'The Edge of Glory' achieved with BTW if 'Gypsy' was the final track.

It's not about having a big message, but about having something to say - there's a difference between preaching and having something to say, and really to qualify as art in any meaningful sense I think an album does have to have something to say, or a point to make, or at least something new to offer. This album doesn't have that, doesn't have a concept in any real sense, and really falls down by most measures of what anybody would think 'art pop' would signify. 'My art pop could mean anything' has ended up meaning nothing.

I can definitely see the distinct lack of art (in the meaningful message sense) and compared to her previous efforts which were all conceptual, this does seem to be more a collection of songs to just tick all the boxes for fans BUT again that is in no way a bad thing. It's her overthinking that stops her connecting with the public and while im not saying this isn't over thought (and produced) it's her going back to the fun side of Fame but in a much more twisted sense musically (which is where I see the growth from BTW).

 

She described the album previously as immature and not responsible and that's what she's given: a raucous free-for-all that doesn't speak out across the album as a whole necessarily but that sounds damn good as individual songs (and which occasionally offers quite tender insights into her mind - Do What U Want/Gypsy especially - not surprisingly two of the album highlights).

 

I'm a bit off with the title now. As you say it brands the album as something that it really isn't (and it's here where a title like 'Bangerz' would be more appropriate *.*).

Oh I'd probably be ALL OVER THIS if it were titled #BANGERZ *.*

 

(although it would still be a step backwards and I'd still be calling for DJ White Shadow's immediate execution for what he's done to half this album)

Edited November 3, 201311 yr by Cassandra

On first listen, FAR better than BTW and honestly most other pop albums from this year. Very patchy still but I'm pretty pleased.

Gypsy is f***ING MAGNIFICENT *.*

Leak alert - I jizzed.