Lady Gaga - Born This Way (May 23)

[Scotty]

Dec 14, 2011 8:08:38 GMT -5 Black Jesus said:

People don't understand that every song released by an artist can't be a #1 hit. There are no artists who have accomplishment that. Even the legends had their share of flops.

+1

I think it is an absolute shame that a gem like MTN might miss the top 10.

[jazzyskye10²]

Slant Magazine's Year End 'Best Of' Lists ~



Singles:

8. Lady Gaga, "The Edge of Glory."

It's a long and synth overdrive-overloaded road to get there, but Lady Gaga's expansive, go-for-broke Born This Way ends on a note of '80s power pop that unifies a huge album's every last conquistador concern, and wraps it up in a bow of saxophone blastula. A complete inversion of its LP-capping partner "Yoü and I," which turns a simple tune into country-fried fireworks, "The Edge of Glory" is a study in radical contrast that, once you sift aside its deliberately dated effects and the legacy of the late Clarence Clemons, is deep down an incredibly delicate ballad. Yes, everyone expects Gaga to make her confessions on the dance floor, but who knew she could make her shouts whisper? EH

5. Lady Gaga, "Born This Way."

Few singles have ever been as hotly anticipated as "Born This Way," and in that sense, the song may have become a victim of its own excess. Though it was unleashed last February to stunningly fast digital sales, it was also welcomed with an unmistakable undercurrent of critical disappointment. Yes, it borrows liberally from Madge's Shep Pettibone-era blueprint. Yes, it's lyrically beyond presumptuous for Gaga to be speaking on our behalf. Yes, it's as subtle as a hot-pink dildo affixed to a chainsaw. It's still an unmistakable landmark pop-cultural moment, a post-irony, post-metaphor, pansexual celebration, aimed squarely at the audience that probably needs it the most. Simple, elegant, better. "Born This Way" doesn't just make a lot of noise. It is a lot of noise. And hell no, it won't go. EH

slantmagazine.com/music/feature/the-25-best-singles-of-2011/293

Albums:

3. Lady Gaga, Born This Way. To call Born This Way one of the year's best albums will come as heresy only to the pop-, queer-, and woman-averse who Lady Gaga assails throughout this magnum opus with the force of a Gatling gun. A self-consciously, some might say Warholian, act of re-appropriation, Born This Way rises cannily and hilariously phoenix-like from its primordial soup of influences, which includes chunks of Cher, Madonna, David Bowie, Queen, Klaus Nomi, Grace Jones, even Dead or Alive. With its relentlessly throbbing beats and plethora of fierce breakdowns, this resuscitated vintage would be perfectly content as the soundtrack to fashion weeks and underground sex dungeons the world over, though really it's intended as a sincere ode to the bedazzled hearts of outsiders past and present, real and imagined, from Marilyn to trannies, Jesus to unicorns. EG

slantmagazine.com/music/feature/the-25-best-albums-of-2011/294/page_1

[bat1990]

I just listened to "Highway Unicorn" with headphones on for the first time in a while, and I just noticed how much the synths under the pre-chorus sound like Poker Face. The rest of the song is so different though.

[Black Jesus]

"Hello. Hello" just got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture!

[Black Jesus]

Where the hell are the tour dates!?