Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Anyone expecting a sleeker, more classy album than The Fame Monster will be sorely disappointed with 'Born This Way'. Gaga has delved deeper into her soul and into darker territory with more techno and sci fi influences. Behind the silly lyrics and evolved instrumental, there is a sadder story within the lyrics; as Lady Gaga shows off her singing talents on 'Marry The Night', a 90s inspired anthem to independence. She sings 'Love is too cruel, to take me away from you', hinting that she's still hurting about her past relationship but inspiring other people to be proud of being an independent woman.

Single tracks, 'Born This Way', 'Judas', 'The Edge of Glory' and 'Hair' all give Gaga a more mainstream edge while the videos are still equally as ridiculous as those featured on 'The Fame Monster' but even more confusing, like the 'Manifesto of Mother Monster' at the start of the Born This Way' video. They are pop in its purest form but with a twist added, Gaga adds her own stamp with her vocals and lyrics like 'Don't be a drag, just be a queen' could be no other than Gaga. The religious aspect of Judas fuelled rage into catholics who were enraged that Gaga had further outdone herself and in one of the episodes of Gagavision, a man hands her a 'get out of hell free card'. Gaga has played on the topic of religion with other religion influenced song 'Bloody Mary' and it feels as if she has played up to this element to the right extent, just bordering on controversial and being a gimmick.  

For fans of more obscure Gaga songs such as 'So Happy I Could Die' and 'Monster', the rest of album is dedicated to you. Persistent techno beats and bleeping synths are the driving force of 'Government Hooker' and Gaga's naughty lyrics reference the affair between John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, 'put your hands on me, John F. Kennedy'. A more linguistic side is fronted in both 'Americano' and 'Scheiße', in which both Spanish and German are spoken and provide a refreshing side to Lady Gaga which has previously been shown in 'Fashion' where she sang in French but this didn't feature on either 'The Fame' or 'The Fame Monster'. 'Heavy Metal Lover' is by far the standout track on 'Born This Way' while Gaga's seductively growls 'I want your whiskey mouth, all over my blonde south' and the ooh's are incredulously catchy, Gaga even manages to fit in an element of modern pop songs, using a vocoder and providing a less mainstream robotic sounding voice than the current pop scene are annoying the world with. There is no denying that the queen of crazy has outdone herself and her career will no doubt sky rocket when 'Born This Way' comes out on CD on Monday 23rd May.

9/10

By Aurora Mitchell