Music Review - Lady Gaga's Born This Way

There is nothing to question when one says that Lady Gaga is one of the front running and most influential artists of today’s pop music. Fans and critics alike anticipated the direction that her sophomore album (or album 2.5, if you are a person who counts The Fame Monster EP as a half-album) would take. It resulted in Born This Way, which the star herself described as some of her best written and composed material. I will be frank. It took me nearly two months after the disc’s release to listen because I was skeptical towards my own reception. After downloading an mp3 version of the album, I stood in my living room and opened my ears. Born This Way is far out from the city of Sophomore Slump and would not step anywhere near it’s jurisdiction.

Nearly 35 seconds into the album, I find myself dancing like a sexual free spirit in a gay club to “Marry The Night”, Gaga’s ode to her beloved New York City and to both it’s traditional and countercultural sides of the nightlife. The title track is one of the highlights of the album, becoming the gay anthem for the 21^st century. The lyrics resonate and reverberate to many during a time where there has been much progress in the LGBT plight for equality, such as the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and New York cementing it’s status as the most recent state legalizing same-sex couples to marry. “Judas” creates a fictional narrative using Biblical characters, Gaga being Mary Magdalene, and it is in no way a mockery of Christianity, despite recent controversy from representatives of the Catholic faith. In fact, it is one of the most danceable tracks that have been weaved into this masterpiece. “Americano” takes a stab at addressing the injustices of undocumented workers in Arizona, standing out as one of the songs where Gaga hammers her passionate activism on causes that are close t o her heart. She delves into other parts of herself, speaking about personal freedom and independence in “Hair”, in which the late great Clarence Clemons contributes with some of the smoothest sounds he ever produced; he also blows sax on “The Edge of Glory”. “Scheibe” bids for female empowerment and stripping oneself from society’s crucial conditions of what it means to be a woman and addressing the power within.

There are few musical eccentricities in other tracks that I haven’t been able to find comfort with, such as tracks “Government Hooker” and “Bloody Mary”, but they are not failures. I would call them minor favorites. Say what you want about Lady Gaga. Say that she is overrated. Say that she has no talent. Say that her music does nothing to uplift. What Gaga has done is craft a phenomenal compilation that surpasses volumes in the world of current American music and culture. It is a tour de force of self-acceptance and universal open-mindedness that has become a very important album for this generation. Let’s see if the Born This Way Ball is equally as triumphant.