Lady Gaga: "The Fame" Brought the Monster Out

Lady Gaga topped Oprah Winfrey in the entertainers with the most power category in 2011 according to some headline I read on some website. Her journey to the top started publicly with the album "The Fame," which was an out of the gates, strongly produced success. After catching her up to some shenanigans on Saturday Night Live, I decided it was time I actually listened to a Lady Gaga album to see if I would go ga-ga. I began with the beginning: "The Fame."

Ultimately, "The Fame" is impressive, but touches into too many generic dance pop sounds that for me felt familiar of works from other artist that came before, though always mixed enough that I could not put my finger on who or what. "The Fame" is a very listenable album, but not worthy of ownership for me and I would stop myself if I accidentally started singing along to the majority of the tracks. I would not even call it a guilty pleasure listen, just a commendable accomplishment that I'll happily skip over in the future. My song by song notes are below.

"Just Dance": Simple, prime for commercials, especially for motion sensor dance video game commercials. Wink. Toss in a male R & B singer doing some lines, and it's a melodic hit that scratches the surface, but doesn't drive the stake into the heart of the beast. Funny lil sounds and play with voice speeds later in the track.

"LoveGame": This clicks with a pop melody hook meets a rap R & B sentimentality expressed sexually through the lyrics and beat. Feels almost like it should be even more up-tempo and powerful, not sure why something in the slickness of it all feels "lazy." A Trojan horse hit, throwing in some catchy hooks, getting the fish in, but then throwing it back before it really realizes what occurred.

"Paparazzi": A smooth pop with a bubble of a beat, twisted in love with fame song with a little 80's flavor almost, a little Gwen Stefani vibe in the voice tone, easy to listen to mostly, clever girl.

"Beautiful, Dirty, Rich": Spoiled pop that goes close to the edge of being too goofy, but reels it in to stay funky enough.

""Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say": A washed out 80's type of pop ballad, that makes me think of trying to sleep in the morning, but the sun is too hot through the window and I'm annoyed by the dust.

"Poker Face": A huge hit, this is the track that really put Lady Gaga on the US map. It's got an infectious dance beat feeding the veins and Lady Gaga keeps pace vocally in the perfect sprint. I'm not saying I personally like the song, gets corny, and if I were caught singing it might send mixed signals about my sexuality, but it is a strong song to go to market with and one can admire that and understand how it became one of the most downloaded singles ever.

"The Fame": A beat, claps, gee-tar twang, something else shaking in the background, Lady Gaga singing a little bit through her nose and then coming into the ultimate flow of the song sounding first like Madonna and then record skipping, and then back to singing nasally.

"Money Honey": Dance pop music about rich people seems to be a reoccurring theme now. Aside from some of the dance beat being fun in the ears, this song is weak, maybe on full blast over club speakers you've got a different animal.

"Again Again": Burlesque piano pop jangle, a better ballad stab than the "Eh Eh" song. A Fiona Apple she is not, but you can side with her if you want.

"Boys Boys Boys": This song has nothing on the Beastie Boys song about girls. Boring song about girls liking boys. Tee-hee.

"Brown Eyes": Another ballad type of song that is a bit skitzo in vocal tone to me. There are soft, nice sounds to her voice, but then tweaks on some lines that are pouty and I'm not sure how I feel about the delivery. Listenable, but oddly annoying at the same time. I think it could grow on me if I let it.

"Summerboy": Another song where I am for some reason reminded of Gewn Stefani's voice, and this one fits even better into the Gwen No Doubt or just barely post-No Doubt. This song stinks though.