Born This Way: an album review

As the world becomes increasingly dependent upon the media, public figures such as pop stars receive more attention than ever before. However, one pop star in particular is taking the world of music by storm. Regardless of what stance you take with her (she’s annoying, she’s inspiring, or she’s just plain weird), it is completely true that Lady Gaga and her new album are the talk of the town.

Born This Way, released last May, is notably the most powerful of Gaga’s works. Brimming with empowering, catchy tunes of self-acceptance, it is surely an album of epic proportions. While it’s easy upon first listening to label Born This Way as an dark, edgy attempt at controversial Catholic slams and emulations of Madonna’s musical prime, in truth it is so much more than that. While it does contain numerous Biblical references as well as the upbeat, thunderous stylings of the Queen of Pop (the track “Born This Way” is undeniably parallel to the 80s hit “Express Yourself”), the album is a finely crafted collection of songs about being and loving who you are. Even Lady Gaga herself explained, “…There is nothing trendy about Born This Way… [it] is about what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid.”

For all of its positive messages and of course its high-quality track lineup (a pop album is nothing without commercial appeal), I did find Born This Way to be a little too synthesized, and a little too obvious. Lady Gaga is incredibly talented vocally, and yet I felt as if this album does not do her voice justice. “The Edge of Glory,” the feel-good ending ballad and third single off the album following “Born This Way” and “Judas”, is the only track which, in my opinion, displays a pure and simple vocal ability. The hottest thing at the moment seems to be songs about loving who you are, but Born This Way is almost too chock-full of self-esteem-boosting songs. The common theme of love is rather absent from the album save for odes to fashion and the iconic designer Alexander McQueen, and I find that the one-theme style of the album detracts from what could have been a better balanced piece of work.

Despite its downfalls, Born This Way is a carefully constructed album filled with emotion, originality, and perhaps even a fleck of personal touch. Of course I will have my pet peeves about it, but as a whole it is a modern and near flawless confection. It is safe to say that it is the most touching album from Lady Gaga so far, and evidently the one with the most work put into it. For all those skeptics who only see Lady Gaga as a limit-pushing, meat-wrapped attention grabber and overall annoyance to the rest of the world, she at least deserves respect for being what so few singers are today, and that is an artist. Intensely, that is also exactly what Born This Way is: a work of art.