Tag Archives: Lady Gaga

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Song of the Day #3,755: ‘Shallow’ – Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

Writer/director/star Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born is one of the most buzzed-about movies of this year’s award season, and now it has a hefty box office take to match. The only thing keeping it from Oscar glory at this point is the risk of peaking too soon.

I liked the film quite a bit, though I didn’t share the rapturous reception of many critics and fans. I loved the languid first half, which depicts Cooper’s Jackson and Lady Gaga’s Ally falling in love. It’s all warm, syrupy hues and hushed conversations.

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Song of the Day #1,857: ‘Beautiful, Dirty, Rich’ – Lady Gaga

lady_gaga_the_fameI don’t much like Lady Gaga as a person — or rather, I don’t much like the persona she has created. Her tiresome antics put her squarely in Madonna-wannabe territory, and I don’t much like Madonna either.

But again and again, I find myself really liking her music — from early hits ‘Just Dance,’ ‘Paparazzi’ and ‘Poker Face’ to ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Telephone’ on her second album and the strong ballad ‘You and I’ on her less celebrated third album.

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Song of the Day #1,141: ‘Hair’ – Lady Gaga

Lady GaGa’s second full-length album, Born This Way, arrived with such fanfare and hype that it couldn’t help but disappoint. It sold well (in part because of a mega-discounted Web deal) but nobody got all that excited about it.

And I’m kind of happy about that. Not because I don’t like Lady GaGa — I do — but because bringing her down to earth might be the best way to shift her focus from the pageantry to the music. GaGa’s music, as it turns out, it actually damn good. And Born This Way shows more promise of a long career than the admittedly addictive pop flash of her Fame records.

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Song of the Day #1,102: ‘The Edge of Glory’ – Lady Gaga

Note: This is the second week of my series of summer singles.

I haven’t gotten around to reviewing the new Lady GaGa album, Born This Way, but that’s not because it isn’t a worthy effort. On the contrary, it takes her music in some interesting new directions.

Actually, I should say some interesting old directions because GaGa, after all the techno dance pop of her first two discs, has remodeled herself as a cross between Pat Benatar and Bruce Springsteen. ‘Born This Way’ (the song) was a straight-up rewrite of Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’ but the rest of the album channels the 80s rock bombast of those other MTV heroes.

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