Lady Gaga - ARTPOP [2012]

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3021250/rockstar-graphic-designers-critique-lady-gagas-artpop-album-cover

Sorry, "rockstar graphic designers" made me break out into hives so I had to close the tab.

I thought "Venus" sounded pretty good live with the Muppets last night. But she really needs to release "Gypsy" as the next single".

yeah as a song, I like "Venus," especially the belting 'goddess of love' section. it has similar strengths and weaknesses to "Applause," though, I'm really glad it was passed over as next single in favor of "Do What U Want." do agree that "Gypsy" is a standout.

i guess she's not such a big fan of some of you

http://i.imgur.com/AJ4BcwF.png

There is something passive aggressive about Gaga's public personae that always turned me off.

yah. this she tweeted at the same time doesn't help

https://twitter.com/ladygaga/status/422134283189243904

talent really doesn't last forever - even the very best often fall off after five/ten years.

wow @ these horrible analogies. i did not realize she was actually this stupid.

Listening to "Tits on the Radio" for the first time in years and thinking this is Gaga's best song.

Occurred to me that I still have not heard this album. Have it, have not heard it. Not sure I have the heart.

it's spotty but def worth hearing if you liked BTW/Fame Monster etc.

Skip the first two tracks, start with "G.U.Y." and then double-back around for "Venus". No one needs to hear "Aura," ever.

"would you critic a critic if you have no experience criticing?"

"Venus" is also terrible

"aura" is easily my 2nd fav song on this

i'm just a sucker for the "Rocket Number 9" reference in "Venus." when i was 15 my AOL screenname was 'RocketNo8' or something like that.

i definitely prefer this album to born this way, but it's still a very disappointing piece of work

i'm a sucker for the interlude where she names the planets in "Venus," because i always imagine a cool montage where all the girls from Sailor Moon triumphantly introduce themselves.

haha there are literally dozens of different youtube results for 'lady gaga venus sailor moon' so one of them's gotta be exactly what you're imagining

broadway looks so medieval

i think i might've made it through this once

Another anecdote: my wife, not to mention my kids, likes Lady Gaga, but I'm not sure any of them even know she has a new(ish) album out.

yeah, not surprising. album is at 600k, can't see it reaching a million at this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNu_-deVemE

Over four minutes of that video are credits! I liked the version of "Artpop" she did on the Tonight Show though.

I hope that because the video features multiple songs from the album, that it's her way of washing herself clean of this whole album and that she's starting writing and recording for her next album.

I think that's already confirmed.

Probably in the minority here in that I'd say I enjoyed ARTPOP more than BTW, though I don't really think much of either album.

If she'd done the singles differently and gone "G.U.Y." then "Do What You What (feat. Christina)" then "Sexx Dreams" i feel like opinions on the album would be v different

what, worse? i feel like she pretty much did the best she could single-wise with what was on the album. "applause" is silly but in terms of catchiness and hooks one of the only stand-outs; "do what u want" was stymied by forces beyond its control. (the xtina version, no.) "g.u.y." is a pretty unremarkable song. "venus" remains appalling.

video seems like it's something her hardcore fans will love but not really much reason for anyone else to be interested. most overtly cheesily camp thing she's done? the sun god, jeez.

imo she should have done something with "swine" was is legit bizarre. completely uncommercial and abrasive but it's not like the more radio-friendly stuff was succeeding for her and her overall narrative desperately needs a dose of reinforcing whatever "genuine weirdo" elements remain rather than the flimsy, slightly embarrassing wizard of oz x sunset boulevard reductive thing she has going on.

*which was

i think a lot of people are very tired of "weirdo" gaga tho. releasing something as ugly as "swine" would have only alienated casual fans even further.

xtina version of dwuw is a hideous grunt off but until we get, like, miguel or something doing the second verse it's the most palatable version available

venus is bad, yeah. todd terje started his pitchfork paris set with a rework of it, was pretty LOL

anyway, i like the video. dance sequences in g.u.y are cute. although the real housewife playing the cello basically gave me an aneurysm.

people are tired of "weirdo" gaga because it's not actually very weird or clever, it's constantly telling but barely showing. i mean to an extent artpop is unsalvageable because of that, but "swine" could conceivably be an opportunity to just be obtuse and bizarre for real. yeah it's ugly and abrasive but even if it's not a success per se, that kind of thing can work for you in other ways. and it's more dignified than scrabbling around for radio hooks in an attempt to get a "hit".

what gaga hasn't worked out is how to present a project in such a way that a conversation about mere sales feels redundant (yeezus, blackout).

at this point her best single bet was probably "aura" like 6 months ago (lyrics or not)

the songs i really wanted to be singles were "Fashion!" and "Sexxx Dreams" or hell, in the wake of "Dark Horse" it probably would've been a good idea to release "Jewels N Drugs." but i agree that doing something really dark or strange with a video for a song like "Swine" might've been cool -- a couple days before this video came out of nowhere I noted on Twitter that it'd been 7 months since the "Applause" video and, in light of the shelved "Do What U Want" video, was the only video that one of the pre-eminent music video artists of our time had released for an album called ARTPOP.

I've come to appreciate Venus and it's total ridiculousness.

Still think "Gypsy" should be released as a single.
Apart from "Jewels and Drugs" and "Dope" I don't see what's so terrible about this album. The production is loud and she probably screams a bit too much, which makes it all a difficult listen at first, but the songs are there.

I wouldn't even say it's terrible. I just can't find a reason why I'd choose to listen to Artpop at any given moment over The Fame/Monster or Born This Way.

"swine" as a single would've been cool but none of those kinds of tracks from BTW got released as singles -- the "weirdest" was Judas which was like fourth-weirdest at best

yeah i didn't mean it should be a single per se but if any pop artist could do additional videos for non-singles the way rappers do it'd be Gaga

In retrospect, Judas was such a strange moment in her popstar career: her weirdest single to date, with a religion-baiting title, supported by a video where she portrays Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the 12 apostles as a modern day biker gang, released on Easter weekend. It predictably bombed as a single, but I can appreciate the sheer "no fucks given" attitude right at the height of her pop culture dominance there.

was "judas" that weird though? in light of "born this way" iirc it just seemed like some further madonna-biting. i like "judas" because it's catchy and sounds banging but it really suffers from having pretensions to meaningfulness and deep themes that it can't back up, the lyrics are just nonsense about nothing and not in the least controversial

in a way "Judas" was a 'safe' choice -- it was the only BTW single produced by RedOne and was the one that hewed closest to the "Bad Romance"/"Poker Face" formula. it just happened not to work.

judas wasn't weird at all but compared to edge of glory or you and i it was clearly the least conservative single from the run

'conservative' in terms of playing to classic rock values with Clarence Clemons and Mutt Lange but in terms of getting her bread buttered by pop radio they were somewhat risky

although i kinda wish BTW had succeeded more in baiting the establishment -- would've loved to see Gaga and Bruce do a Clarence tribute duet at the Grammys

Yeah after many complained about "Born This Way" (the song)'s new direction, "Judas" was supposed to give people a more familiar Lady Gaga. It backfired by being way too similar to "Bad Romance" which you can practically sing over and trying to be too weird, which turned a lot of people off.
After it flopped it was difficult even for "Edge Of Glory" to pick up the pieces, especially with that rushed video. I think they should've just stood behind that new sound and released EOG as the 2nd single.

"born this way" was a new direction? people weren't complaining that it was a departure (it wasn't!), they were complaining that it had dumb lyrics and was a straight madonna lift.

"the edge of glory" (and "yoü and i") weren't gaga's usual sound but they were def in the vein of stuff she'd hinted at doing before, like "speechless" - i always thought that was a direction she could mine profitably, but she hasn't quite made it work for her yet

I always thought she should've released a radio edit of "Speechless" as a single with a video made of images of her on the road on her Monster Ball Tour like they used to do in the 80's :-)
She was so huge at that time I'm sure it would've been a hit.

also, it's a bloody good song (with...good lyrics! i know gaga's always had her clunkers lyrically but listening back it's really apparent how much she's fallen off in that area)