Let’s start by taking in everything that has been said about ARTPOP so far. The Daily Beast claims that despite its artistry, the album “never really pops” as Lady Gaga bogs herself down in the old themes of fame, artistic life and glamor that by now have run their course. The LA Times presented a mixed-leaning-towards-positive review that described many of Gaga’s new tracks as “appealingly carnal,” while others have praised ARTPOP’s dance-like qualities and Gaga’s experimentation with trap, RnB and more.
The reviews are all over the place with Gaga’s own vague definition of “art” adding to the confusion. The pop star’s repeated mantra to put “art culture into pop music,” a “reverse Warhol” process, has definitely encouraged her to relentlessly experiment with music’s latest trends while also creating a curiously disjointed album at parts. Gaga’s definition of “art” ranges from the elegant folds of a silk Donatella Versace dress to romantic Boticelli paintings depicting the birth of Venus, a definition so open that the broad sweeping guidelines slide into and, at times, muddle up her synth-pop melodies.
In other words, the art gets lost in the pop more than enough times because we can’t actually grasp what she means by “art.”
That isn’t to say that Gaga has lost her ability to grip. ARTPOP explodes with “Aura” as an opener, the first chapter of Gaga’s tale that centers once more on her run-ins with the glamorous and raw nature of fame. In her typical bluntness, Gaga immediately alerts us that the album is about “Dance. Sex. Artpop” with booming vocals that ask us if we’d like to “see [her] naked,” hinting at the primal nature of her story and music that defines the album.
From there, Gaga draws on planets, goddesses, sex and fabulousness to draw us in to the messy world of fame. But while her vocals soar with driving beats and the overt sensuality that initially made her famous, there are times when the experimentation goes off-kilter. Gaga’s collaboration with T.I., Too Short and Twista in “Jewels N’ Drugs” tries to mix her highly synthetic pop with hip hop in a mesh that sells both genres short, leaving behind a fairly incomplete-sounding track. Her foray into dark, heavy electro house in “Swine” also ends up having the same result and soon it sounds like any other pop-infused house track on the radio, devoid of Gaga.
But when she decides to strip down to the basic pounding baselines and dynamic vocals that made her claim to fame, Gaga can produce some truly magical tracks. In this case, we’re talking about the last three tracks of the album. “Dope,” “Gypsy” and “Applause” all seem to build on one another, melodically and momentum-wise, leading to a grand pop-rock inspired finish that really lives up to the album’s story. By this point, there’s no more over-embellishment but just raw emotion and raw pop, exactly how we like Gaga.
At the same time, maybe Gaga’s critics have been too harsh. The pop star has repeatedly said that there’s almost a “tremendous lack of maturity or sense of responsibility” with ARTPOP, implying a sort of return to pure fun and experimentation. In that respect, Gaga’s achieved just that with tracks that are sure to fire up a dance floor. She may just want to capture the abandon she sees in her pop star life, and if that’s the case we may all be expecting too much out of her.
ARTPOP does have its flaws, but the flaws themselves may also make the art. We’ll never know and for now, Lady Gaga will never tell.