Every now and again, the scales tip over and a new record becomes ‘an event’. With the pre-release hype, leaks and online babble about it being a career-ending trainwreck, ‘ARTPOP’, Lady Gaga’s third full-length, was on course to end up on the wrong side of that equation.
Having played the chameleon to a pop scene so in need of a little excitement that Madonna and David Bowie’s previous efforts were often relegated to the background, Gaga has again sought to reinvent her appeal. We were told that ‘ARTPOP’ was just that, a revolutionary fusion that would unfold as a ‘reverse Warholian expedition’, using its creator as a ‘cultural interface’.
Like a boxer piling on the smack talk before losing a split decision, the final piece doesn’t quite stack up to the hype. For all her recent setbacks, Lady Gaga is still a tremendously interesting character and at times here she’s provocative, funny and vulnerable. The issue is that, over the course of 15 songs and 60 minutes, ‘ARTPOP’ never gets a handle on any one thing. It’s a mess.
While Venus, G.U.Y. and the neon electro of Do What U Want, a collaboration with R Kelly that became the record’s pre-release flagbearer, are at turns catchy and entertaining, none of them land a Bad Romance, Poker Face or Alejandro-sized blow. Lady Gaga has been responsible for some of the most finely crafted pop songs of the last decade, but there aren’t many here that could take on her best work.
The closest we get is a strong salvo just past the album’s midway point, where the scratchy, forthright Swine is followed by Fashion!, Mary Jane Holland, her ode to marijuana, and the effective Dope, which features the most powerful vocal performance on ‘ARTPOP’. Nestled in the middle though is the vacuous Donatella, the latest in a line of reminders that something’s not quite right. Sexxx Dreams, Jewels N' Drugs - featuring T.I, Twista and Too $hort - MANiCURE and Applause, the lead single, are similarly flawed.
Perhaps the fevered expectation has finally caught up with the queen of popular culture. ‘ARTPOP’ is a decent album, at times it’s excellent. But with Lady Gaga, there’s always a nagging hope that something spectacular is coming. One thing that we can say is that she’ll be back. Rumours of her creative death have been greatly exaggerated.
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