Lady Gaga The Fame Monster review

The Fame Monster is Lady Gaga‘s 2nd album. At the beginning, the eight songs of this album supposed to be part of her first album re-release. But after doing some further considerations, Gaga decided to release it as a new album, stand alone apart from The Fame. Gaga thought it’d unfair to add those eight songs as a part of The Fame re-release. Also, it’d be expensive.

“I think re-releases are unfair. It’s artists sneaking singles onto an already finished piece of work in an effort to keep the album afloat. Originally [my label] only wanted me to put out three songs and now it’s much more than that. It’s a new album’s worth of material.

Having that thoughts, Gaga also decided to release The Fame Monster in three version.

A standard version which includes these eight songs; a deluxe version which includes the eight songs plus her first debut album, The Fame; and a super-deluxe art book version, which includes The Fame Monster, The Fame, fanzines, 3-D glasses, paper dolls, a puzzle, pictorials, a lock of Lady Gaga’s hair and other surprises, as written in LadyGaga.com. The album will be released on this November 23 while the super-deluxe on December 15.

Well, I found this new album is really interesting. Still remembering how good the massive first album, and her single, Bad Romance is, I put a high hope on it. And I can say I’m not disappointed. To repeat a success from a debut album is quite a challenge, especially when it’s pretty huge with many great achievements and records. However, Gaga seems to successfully do it again with The Fame Monster.

The overall impression of the album for me, is that it has more euro disco style than The Fame did. That leaves us with a different sense of the beat and the music itself. I don’t know if it’s related with certain purposes whether Gaga wants to be more accepted outside US. Anyway, here’s my impression for each song, with my most favorite ones will be Bad Romance, Telephone and Monster. But I also recommend you to listen to Speechless. That song is just beautiful.

Bad Romance is a solid song. It begins with a very drifting and smooth intro, and then continues with solid beats and a couple of broken chords. I love the lyrics. It reflects a woman’s desperation, yet a strong will to keep on surviving. It’s accompanied with great chords of the chorus and the powerful beats and rhythms. The sounds give you mixed feelings. Sometimes you hear wildness, the other times you’ll hear sadness, while plenty of times you just want to dance real good. The whole part of the melody itself is one of the best from Gaga. The closure of the song is really at its best. Gaga’s voice is powerful here, slightly with wording a la Poker Face. But what I think the best part of the song is how the instruments sound. The synth of the music’s just robust. Fantastic. Maybe if I’m not mistaken, this song probably the best song yet from Gaga. Listen.

First time I hear leaked demo version of Alejandro, I’m not interested this much with this song. But the final retail version offers you longer and better intro, also better music synth. It’s richer and those facts change almost everything I felt about this song before. And the pause in between the interlude is really something. I love how this song turn out to be a slow mellow romantic trance. The verse is calm, giving a relaxing sensation. In the end, I love how this song feels. It’s romantic, even more with the addition of the violin. Listen.

Monster is probably one of the most solid songs in the album. I love parts of the lyrics “he ate my heart”. It reflects how a monster does. Monsters eat. In this context, he ate her heart and she liked it. Oh, I love naughty lyrics! The beat, melody and harmony sound so classic, yet so electronic and trancic. It’s like listening to a song from the disco era, mixed up with recent beats styles. I notice in the bridge of the song, there is the phrase “just dance” in a similar tone with Just Dance’s chorus. That’s awesome. Gaga now makes her own phrasing with those words by putting it into a new song. I love this song so much, that I can tell. Listen.

I heard that Gaga dedicated Speechless to his father, Joseph. Let me tell you a bit about that. So Joseph has been suffering from heart illness for 4 years, and recently had open heart surgery. Before that, her father refused to have any surgery and medication, and this was the time when Gaga said that she’d quit singing if her father keeps doing so. In her Twitter, Gaga once said, ““My daddy hap open heart surgery today (October 23). And after long hours, and lots of tears, they healed his broken heart, and mine. Speechless.”She later updated her page to read, “At the hospital. Giving daddy a foot rub while he falls asleep. He’s my hero.” Joseph is as much a hero for Gaga as he’s the one helping gaga much out of her addiction to cocaine. Well, I listen to the lyrics, and I’m just.. speechless. This song’s not that much of my taste, but I even had a tear first time hearing this. It’s just beautiful. Listen.

Dance In The Dark is a great song with powerful lyrics. Gaga even includes five women, or I could say four women and one young little girl who tragically died young. This song sounds just like 80’s song, with its synth and stuffs, only mixed with her style of electronic. Not to mention the chords of the chorus who appears to be strongly influenced by the 80’s. The song, in short, is appealing enough to me. Listen.

Telephone (feat. Beyoncé) is absolutely one of my most favorite songs from Gaga. Gaga’s voice sounds so natural here, like she did in Just Dance. This song is really good to dance with. The beat is lively with naughty lyrics. I love how the lyric is once again about a party in a club, just like Gaga wrote in Just Dance. It’s like a repetition of Just Dance, which is also one of my most favorite, only this repetition is a good one. Beyoncé ’s part successfully make this song step up further to a new level, leaving the song in a good position, not just to remain a dance song, but more. I love the closure, the chords and keys progression is awesome. It reminds me of the keys Beyoncé often includes in her songs, only with Gaga’s style. I definitely can listen to this song again and again. Listen.

So Happy I Could Die, in my point of view, is just another dance song. It includes trance sounds, but in an ordinary level. Listening to it the first time, I wasn’t that interested. And after had listening it a couple of times, I’m still not that interested. It’s not bad either though. You can still enjoy the beat. Listen.

Listening to Teeth, I’m kind of reminded of Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basic. Funny, eh. Well, Gaga sounds just like Christina’s here. Not to mention the song, it’s in the style of Christina’s Back to Basic. Of course, with the addition of Gaga’s rough (in a good way) vocal. I kind of like this song, really. It’s fun and the most soulful one in the album yet. Only I feel that Gaga don’t deliver as much as I expected. She should’ve been improvised more with her vocal, which she didn’t. Listen.

Overally, The Fame Monster is really worth buying. I’m planning to buy the deluxe edition myself. I’d love to collect the two albums since I haven’t had the chance to buy The Fame. It will be a good decision I believe. And what about you? (mb)

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