REVIEW: The Fame Monster By Lady Gaga

(Interscope/Universal)

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To my mind, Lady Gaga is one of the most exciting artists to emerge out of the new millennium. Why? Because unlike most, she’s got her shit down.

Paloma Faith hates her, but then, who gives a toss what that eighties Winehouse wannabe thinks. The fact that she doesn’t consider Gaga to be innovative, or a good songwriter, just proves what a moron she is anyway. To my mind, Lady Gaga is one of the most exciting artists to emerge out of the new millennium. Why? Because unlike most, she’s got her shit down. She’s the whole package. Whether it is her unique approach to fashion, her choreography, the style of her videos, the structure of her songs, the themes in her lyrics - Lady Gaga knows who she is as an artist and how she wants to be experienced. This is something that’s missing in most of today’s performers. Michael Jackson had it. Prince, David Bowie, Billy Idol and Madonna had it. But out of the new millennium pop crop, I can count them up on one hand and still have fingers to spare. The Fame Monster is a strange beast. This two disc repackaged set contains Gaga’s original album, and a disc containing eight new tracks led by its phenomenal first single ‘Bad Romance’. I’m not quite sure why she chose to package the two together rather that record a couple more songs and call it album number two. Maybe she was in a hurry to get new stuff out. Maybe the record company wanted to squeeze a few more sales out of the first record. Whatever the reason, I’m happy, as I’d lost my copy of her debut. The question is, is it worth buying if you own the original? I’m gonna say yes. The bonus disc certainly doesn’t sound like leftovers, as ‘Bad Romance’ proves. Other standouts include the club ready ‘Monster’ with its fabulously kitsch Simonds drum sounds, and the Billy Joel channelling ‘Speechless’. Beyoncé re-teams for the ultra catchy single number two, ‘Telephone’, and ‘Teeth’ has a chunky groove that’s reminiscent of Pac’s ‘California Love’. Gaga easily feeds us more flavour and fun on this bonus disc than Paloma did on her entire debut.

by Matt Ruys