Artpop Review

Lady Gaga's fourth album, Artpop, is a cosmically fabulous pop album.

The first three songs, "Aura," "Venus," and "G.U.Y" are a constant stream of hooks one after the other. Songs like "MANiCURE," "Mary Jane Holland" and "Donatella" have funny and clever lyrics. "Do What U Want" calls back to her first album and has a good contribution from R. Kelly. "Sexxx Dreams" and "Fashion!" channel popular 90s-influenced house music.





The lead single, "Applause," is a typical Gaga single with a bouncy pop hook.


"Jewels N' Drugs" suffers from its rap part and is very out of place within this album. "Swine" has some weird nasal drawling and a weird ending.


"Dope" is the big piano ballad of the album. Gaga sounds wonderfully dramatic and seems to be doing her best Springsteen in the chorus on the heels of songs like "Hair" and "Edge of Glory." "Gypsy" is the other ballad of the album, except it's the ballad-to-uptempo of the album, an ode to travelling the world.

My favorite track is "ARTPOP," which is very Born this Way, a little like "Bloody Mary," with a great ending. It's fitting that my favorite reminds me of that album, as I much prefer it to this one. However, a less-than-perfect Gaga album is still better than all its competition this autumn.