Disclaimer: I'm sort of a Gaga fan, but I also happen to be prone to awkward displays of admiration, like when I said to a female friend in high school: "I love your earrings, they look like toilet flush chains". Actually, that music monster and, above all, media monster called Lady Gaga makes it very easy for everyone to walk that line between snickering praise and amused disapproval.
I'm aware of all the "borrowing" going on with her, musically and aesthetically, but I don't care. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to originality. Just name one artist, any field, that doesn't make you think of someone else or a mix of references. What's important is that the artist achieves his/her own, recognizable blend, and nobody can deny the Upper East Side crazy girl that accomplishment. If when Born This Way was released everybody was pointing at the resemblance with Madonna's Express Yourself (which I'm sure most people wouldn't have spotted if they hadn't read or heard about it first), now for her next single, Judas, Lady Gaga has borrowed from someone she really loves: herself. Let's say this song's about her Bad Romance with a biblical figure. RedOne's aggressive, overwhelming boom-thump-boom-thump production is back. And, for everybody's fun, Gaga's antics as a lyricist are back in good shape.
Let's face it, there's no song in The Fame/ The Fame Monster in which she gets to make sense from start to end and stick to the subject. Maybe one, Brown eyes, which stands out for its simplistic beauty. If it wasn't for that song and her lucidity while interviewed, I would tend to regard the Gaga phenomenon as post-modern horror vacui, an overload of whatever she can come up with to hide the void, without filling it with purpose or depth. That's why I was happy to hear Born This Way, her first song with a real message, even if it was a message we've heard before: express-yourself-because-you-are-beautiful-no-matter-what-they-say-McDonalds-come-as-you-are.
Well, for those who found that was almost too explicit for her, there goes Judas.
Lady Gaga - JUDAS by igapromotion
Oh Gaga, you falling in love with the wrong guy again, and he gets you splitting syllables again. OK, I got it, you're all yin yang now, and this album's about that conflictual but complementary duality. "How can I protect something so perfect without evil?", you were wondering not so long ago. And now you're in love with Judas but something's putting you away from him, basically your virtue, Jesus. Yeah, you say "Jesus is my virtue", three lines after uttering the words "ear condom". Girl, that's bad-ass, as you promised this song would be. I'm actually surprised you didn't say anything along the lines: "Judas, I could be yours, but Jesus is cock-blocking you".
And Gaga, just admit your singing in the track is not Caribbean-inspired as some are saying, but just your way of hiding the prevalent lack of rhyme in the verses. You get to rhyme "fool" and "cruel", though. Wow.
Plus, there are moments where it seems you're talking as if you were Jesus. You're calling yourself "just a holy fool". You present yourself as the one who washes feet, as the receiver of Judas's kiss and the victim of Judas's betrayal, "even after three times"... By the way, you have some confused memories of your Bible readings as a child: the "king with no crown" was Jesus, Judas wasn't a demon, he didn't kiss Jesus because he felt offended but in order to let the baddies know which one they had to arrest, and the three times in the Passion don't have to do with Judas but with Peter (AKA San Pedro, the one Madonna fell in love with), who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed.
*Sigh*
Mess.
The only words of wisdom in the song: "I’ve learned love is like a brick, you can build a house or sink a dead body". Amen, Gaga. Happy Easter!
PS: sorry for getting pedantic on the Scriptures. I spent twelve years of my life in a Catholic school and I learned how to keep the right distance between mouth and mic reading at church. That's my excuse.
I'm aware of all the "borrowing" going on with her, musically and aesthetically, but I don't care. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to originality. Just name one artist, any field, that doesn't make you think of someone else or a mix of references. What's important is that the artist achieves his/her own, recognizable blend, and nobody can deny the Upper East Side crazy girl that accomplishment. If when Born This Way was released everybody was pointing at the resemblance with Madonna's Express Yourself (which I'm sure most people wouldn't have spotted if they hadn't read or heard about it first), now for her next single, Judas, Lady Gaga has borrowed from someone she really loves: herself. Let's say this song's about her Bad Romance with a biblical figure. RedOne's aggressive, overwhelming boom-thump-boom-thump production is back. And, for everybody's fun, Gaga's antics as a lyricist are back in good shape.Let's face it, there's no song in The Fame/ The Fame Monster in which she gets to make sense from start to end and stick to the subject. Maybe one, Brown eyes, which stands out for its simplistic beauty. If it wasn't for that song and her lucidity while interviewed, I would tend to regard the Gaga phenomenon as post-modern horror vacui, an overload of whatever she can come up with to hide the void, without filling it with purpose or depth. That's why I was happy to hear Born This Way, her first song with a real message, even if it was a message we've heard before: express-yourself-because-you-are-beautiful-no-matter-what-they-say-McDonalds-come-as-you-are.
Well, for those who found that was almost too explicit for her, there goes Judas.
Lady Gaga - JUDAS by igapromotion
Oh Gaga, you falling in love with the wrong guy again, and he gets you splitting syllables again. OK, I got it, you're all yin yang now, and this album's about that conflictual but complementary duality. "How can I protect something so perfect without evil?", you were wondering not so long ago. And now you're in love with Judas but something's putting you away from him, basically your virtue, Jesus. Yeah, you say "Jesus is my virtue", three lines after uttering the words "ear condom". Girl, that's bad-ass, as you promised this song would be. I'm actually surprised you didn't say anything along the lines: "Judas, I could be yours, but Jesus is cock-blocking you".
And Gaga, just admit your singing in the track is not Caribbean-inspired as some are saying, but just your way of hiding the prevalent lack of rhyme in the verses. You get to rhyme "fool" and "cruel", though. Wow.
Plus, there are moments where it seems you're talking as if you were Jesus. You're calling yourself "just a holy fool". You present yourself as the one who washes feet, as the receiver of Judas's kiss and the victim of Judas's betrayal, "even after three times"... By the way, you have some confused memories of your Bible readings as a child: the "king with no crown" was Jesus, Judas wasn't a demon, he didn't kiss Jesus because he felt offended but in order to let the baddies know which one they had to arrest, and the three times in the Passion don't have to do with Judas but with Peter (AKA San Pedro, the one Madonna fell in love with), who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed.
*Sigh*
Mess.
The only words of wisdom in the song: "I’ve learned love is like a brick, you can build a house or sink a dead body". Amen, Gaga. Happy Easter!
PS: sorry for getting pedantic on the Scriptures. I spent twelve years of my life in a Catholic school and I learned how to keep the right distance between mouth and mic reading at church. That's my excuse.
4 comments, where's yours?:
I think I may love your review of the song more than the song itself. LOL :)
I like the song....yes it is controversial
don't care
I think the song will grow in listeners.
I heard saw it performed on Graham Norton. It was like audio cat piss, and she had zero personality.
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