If anyone knows about “pop”, it’s Lady Gaga. She released her debut album five years ago and has already become one of the most popular singers ever. That’s quite a feat. Whether it had more to do with talent or luck is a question this album makes it difficult to answer. It’s far from spectacular, but her hooks are generally better than average and catchy hooks are very important. I just wish she’d ride them out more. The Dope ballad, for example, sounds almost anticlimactic because the refrain never goes for longer than four bars.

The album’s best moments come via Gypsy, the final fifty seconds of which are awesome and exhilarating. If the whole song sounded that great, it would be an instant classic. The worst parts of the album can be found not in the music but in the lyrics of the songs. Venus has on it the kind of stale space-love lines The B-52s might’ve used. “Manicure” as a pun for “man-cured” is just plain stupid. For what it’s worth though, Lady Gaga’s music is aesthetically on par with, if not better than, that of Madonna, her most obvious influence.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013