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Upon opening her incredibly laborious third record, ARTPOP, Lady Gaga states on first track ‘Aura’, "It’s not a statement as much as just a move of passion."
Thus she plays entirely into her critics' hands; whilst many may have been completely impressed by every meat dress and absurdly "weird" music video and proclaimed it to be a work of “genius” - is it really just a façade?
Lyrically, it’s much the same; she sings about wanting to be the “girl under you” and professes her love for her fans on the heart-felt ballad ‘Dope’. As a result, it just doesn’t feel as exciting or innovative as one can imagine Gaga thinks it all is and it’s easy to assume there is a large audience getting tired of Gaga’s antics due to all this suffocation of being so “artsy” that it becomes far less relevant or potent.
Listen to 'Dope' in full below
Gaga falls into the same trap sonically in that it is very much the same as she’s always been. Filled with pounding Europop beats there are some undeniably catchy moments on ARTPOP such as the slightly underperforming ‘Applause’. Despite the reactions of many of her “little monsters” who will no doubt dance to these songs relentlessly, most will find that the catchy moments aren’t quite impressive or exciting enough to make you fall to the Lady’s feet.
Some of that could be down to the fact that the real stinkers on here stand out for miles. The slightly rockier ‘Swine’ is exceptionally bratty as is her commentary of fashion in pop culture today, ‘Fashion!’ where she yells “singing to the tune just to keep them talking” It’s at instances like these where you begin to question whether Gaga has any other points to make apart from the fact she loves feeling famous.
Listen to 'Swine' in full below
All of this lacklustre creativity is encapsulated on the titular track when she proudly lets the audience know “My artpop could mean anything.” The issue that really needs to be discussed though, is does her artpop mean anything?
