ARTIST: Lady GaGa
TITLE: “Bad Romance”
WEB DEBUT: Oct. 19, 2009
ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Yes, this is the same “Bad Romance” that leaked in apparently half-finished form earlier this month; this morning it got released in its fully finished form. “Romance” will appear on the forthcoming Super Monday-slated reissue of GaGa’s The Fame, and this track is apparently supposed to represent her fear of love. The new version also represents her fear of not putting out music that’s as glitzy as possible, as evidenced by her saying that listening to the demo’s initial leak made her ears bleed; you can definitely hear the shininess turned all the way up. But otherwise it’s not that much different: there’s GaGa working out the lower part of her vocal register, there’s GaGa engaging in the sort of wordless vocalizing that keeps people wondering about her Illuminati ties, there’s even a bit of French in there. The track was produced by the Moroccan-Swedish knob-twiddler RedOne—also responsible for GaGa’s “Poker Face” and that not-very-good Sugababes single—and maybe it’s just that his techniques leave me cold?
WHERE TO HEAR IT: Right here:
Earlier: Lady GaGa Still Going Full Speed Ahead With Her Career
I just do not get Lady Gaga, and I LOVE pop music ladies. I really do! But she is confusing to me, and her pastiche of pretending to be artistic and sounding like a robot just escapes my taste level; she’s not as brilliant as she thinks she is, nor is her music as modern and ‘new’ as she pretends it to be. This, like ‘Poker Face,’ is really two songs smashed into one, and I think it’s slightly bizarre and un-pop and really just disjointed. I think she has a genuine understanding of what makes a great pop chorus, but the rest of it is three sheets to the wind so far as I’m concerned.
And if we’re going to do a little RED ONE! bashing re: derivitiveness, can we please discuss Darin’s "Girl Next Door" from 2007 as exhibit A. I can’t believe the anybody can think this sound fresh at this point.