CD Reviews

Lady Gaga | The Fame

Interscope (2008)

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 22, 2008

3.0 Stars

It seems so long ago now, that brief time in the late ’90s when virginal Britneys and Xtinas uttered chaste vows to members of high-profile boy bands in a Garden of Eden littered with Catholic school-girl outfits and Grammy nominations. And it’s high time we acknowledged that we are now living after the fall: if the newest crop of aspiring pop divas is any indication, the gloves are off and promiscuity is back. Stefania Gabriella Germanotta a/k/a Lady GaGa (like the Queen ’80s hit “Radio GaGa” — she cites Freddie Mercury as a key influence) has a similar backstory to those Mouseketeers mentioned above: a precocious childhood filled with high-profile gigs and early involvement from major-label heavies. “Let’s have some fun, this beat is sick/I want to take a ride on your disco stick” (from “Love Game”) might be the trashiest-yet-awesomest refrain I’ve heard on a major-label record this year. With production help from DJ Space Cowboy, the mastermind behind Nadia Oh’s criminally ignored smut-diva magnum opus Hot like Wow, GaGa ups the ante in terms of catchy songwriting and sheer high-in-the-club-banging-to-the-beat abandon. “I’m not loose, I like to party/Let’s get lost in your Ferrari” from “Boys Boys Boys” seems like an inversion of Mötley Crüe, and so do the descending pianos of “Brown Eyes,” the song’s “Home Sweet Home” vibe being completed with its glam guitar dénouement.

Related: Into the weird, Review: Lady Gaga at the Wang, Girl gone wild, More

Into the weird
No, it's not your imagination: things are getting smaller. Or at least, it seems that way in the funhouse-mirror world of modern music, where the semi-demise of the major-label factory has colluded with the anti-star obsession of the underground to produce a chasing of microgenres into mazes of musical self-selection.
Review: Lady Gaga at the Wang
Lady Gaga, resplendent, striding onto the stage of the Wang Theatre, has just removed an intricate half-Egyptian/half-Wagnerian headdress from her person, freeing her enormous blonde hairdo from its confinement.
Girl gone wild
"My hair may be blond, but my heart is brunette," announced Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta — a/k/a Lady Gaga.
The Big Hurt: Brand new Dio; same old Yoko; auguries of Creed
In the process of writing last week's column about hidden Satanic messages in pop music, I listened to a bunch of shit backward and discovered that the track "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga is much, much better that way.
The Big Hurt: Taking on pain, cooling on wangs
Weezer's forthcoming album will be titled Raditude . I almost want to pep them up: "Come on, Weezer, you're not that bad." But they are.
The Big Hurt: Dialing up Billboard’s Ringtones Chart
We may scoff at the very idea of Billboard ’s ignominious Ringtones chart, but mobile phones are one of only three viable revenue channels musicians have left these days (the other two being commercial licensing and crooked charities).
Lady Gaga | The Fame Monster
With our world ready to melt into oblivion any day now, pop divas know that even their days are numbered.
Photos: Chillin with Gaga and Wale
Wale and Lady Gaga shoot a music video on the Boston waterfront.
Slideshow: Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga
Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga, live at House of Blues, May 4, 2009
The Big Hurt: Attention whoring and headline parsing
Slow news week.
Photos: Lady GaGa at House of Blues
Lady GaGa live at the House of Blues with Chester French, March 30, 2009
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Nadia Oh, More

| More

ARTICLES BY DANIEL BROCKMAN

THE CULT SURVIVES ROCK'S HIGHS AND LOWS | May 29, 2012
There is a difference between an unknown musical artist and a superstar, and that difference isn't necessarily musical — it's mythological.

RAZORMAZE ADDS FOCUS TO THEIR THRASH | May 15, 2012
For a kind-of goofy metal dude, Alex Citrone is pretty serious — especially when he talks metal, and especially when he's talking about his band, Boston shred titans Razormaze.

ZAMBRI | HOUSE OF BAASA | May 15, 2012
For those of us of a certain age who remember when school dances had a strict four-fast-songs-then-one-slow-one policy, the memory of bouncing around to "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with the anticipation of "One More Night" or "Take My Breath Away" still makes our palms sweat with hormonal anxiety.

CONFRONTING THE SWEDISH GLOOM OF IN SOLITUDE | May 08, 2012
When I am finally able to get through to the cell phone of In Solitude's tour manager, they have emerged from a massive dust cloud, their metal-mobile finding civilization after a long spell traversing the deserts of Arizona with no idea where they are going.

[R.I.P.] ADAM YAUCH AND THE BEASTIE BOYS | May 08, 2012
ADAM YAUCH, a/k/a MCA, was likely inspired to pen those words, that appear in a tossed off couplet in the middle of what would wind up being one of the band’s final singles, by his immersion in the world of illness.