Lady Gaga
'The Fame Monster'
If fame is a monster, at least it can dance!
It’s comforting to learn that Lady Gaga’s supposed dark side—The Fame Monster offers a flipside to The Fame’s sexy fun—is just as fun-loving and club-rousing as the songs that made her famous, because, really, her playful façade is a huge part of her appeal. So the undeniable “Bad Romance,” with its earworm nonsense lyric (“ba-ra-a-a-a, ra-ma, uh-uh-ah!”), throws in a couple of negative-sounding words, but plays like the best Madonna song in ages. And “Dance in the Dark” leans similarly Madge-tastic.
When Gaga reaches for sincere balladry, though, she sounds lost: “Speechless” relies on a confusing twang, as if she’s reaching for the one audience she has yet to tap, and then drifts into Celine Dion territory—a place better left to those whose popularity isn’t so inextricably linked to plastic-bubble dresses and infectious synth beats.
WATCH: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"
