Yesterday I finally found a site where I could stream Born This Way. I’ve always been a Gaga fan to some extent (though far from a “Little Monster”), but Born This Way is for the most part an unfocused mess of an album. The opener “Marry the Night” and “Judas” are the lone standouts, and they really hint at what this album could have been. Instead, the rest of the album ranges from bland (“You and I”) to downright awful (“Government Hooker”, “Americano”). Gaga is at the point where she’s begun to parody herself. Half of “Sheisse” features Gaga speaking in a monotone German as if she’s mocking herself, and the chorus can’t save it. The so-called “sledge-hammering” beats can be atrocious at times, and other times everything is just uninspired (half of the album.) Although there are probably 4 good songs here, out of 14 tracks that’s not much of an accomplishment, especially considering that those 4 songs can’t stand up to anything from The Fame or The Fame Monster. Born This Way is basically a parody of The Fame Monster mashed together with Meat Loaf’s operatic ridiculousness (and none of its charm), and after a while it just becomes very tired, even if it sounded good at the beginning of the album. It was incredibly hard to sit through Born This Way‘s long 61 minutes, and as some have suggested, it seems like Gaga must have no one editing her work. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to poorly PhotoShop her head onto a motorbike, slap a shiny font over it and call it an album cover? This, my friends, is the most jokey album cover since Weezer’s Raditude, and it has none of its charm, and the album itself is very similar in that it’s an anti-masterpiece and a parody of the artists’ older work at best.
Still, I applaud Gaga for getting these “be yourself” messages to teens who really need them, and on that note, Born This Way somewhat succeeds. For anyone but the Little Monsters though, this is definitely an album that you should pass up, as it doesn’t resemble the masterwork that it was supposed to be in any way.
Final Verdict: 2 Stars out of 5
