Lady Gaga. Born What Way? Born THIS Way!

The infamous Gaga! Lady of costume, Gaga in style. Ever creative, ever beautiful, glorious and controversial, Lady Gaga!

In this lens, not only I'm am going to be featuring information about Lady Gaga herself, but I'll also be exploring her second album Born This Way. As well as other Lady Gaga Songs and some ideas for Lady Gaga Costumes.

I absolutely loved her debut album The Fame Monster, so the pressure was on to see what she would come up with to better the success of her first release. Was her follow album a flopper or a hit?

It's clear to say that there was a lot of anticipation, to find out what the newly crowned Princess of pop, Lady Gaga, would release after the enormous success of her debut album The Fame. After a rerelease with an extra CD including the hits Bad Romance and Telephone (with everyone's favourite booty shaker, Beyonce) the popstar/crazy lady could do no wrong. Then she released 'Born This Way'. Accused of similarities between the title track and Madonna's Express Yourself, the politically socialist, liberal and equality spouting anthem made many exhale with a resounding sigh of "is that it?".

Here are the 2 songs, listen to them both and see what you think. Is it fair for Gaga to be criticised and accused of copying Madonna's track?

Do you think Born This Way sounds like Express Yourself?

When Lady Gaga first came out, I really liked what she had to offer. I liked the Gaga. Her introduction to the music scene, came across as whimsy, light-hearted, kooky, fun, irreverant and harmless. Then all of a sudden, quicker than you can say ra-ra-ra-ahh-aaaah-roma-ro-ma-ma-gaga-oh-la-la Lady Gaga started developing and caressing a political flair - fighting for equality and justice for all. Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for equality and taking a stand, as much as the next man, but when it's chanted at you so directly, it becomes annoying and almost patronising. I would prefer her music to be more subtle, and for her to make speeches in public about her beliefs perhaps.

Then again, it is fresh and unheard of, for a mainstream popstar, such as Lady Gaga to sing about such issues in an upfront, direct way - should she be appauled for this? Probably

In my humble opinion, the Album is bookended with reasonably good tracks, but the album as a whole, just doesn't seem to have much meat its bones. There is something of a rather generic similarity throughout, because most of the tunes share a similar metallic, grinding synthetic sound (including 'Born This Way') that doesn't sit well with my well attuned ears, listening out for the perfect pop ditty. Unsurprisingly with that statement, it's clear to see that these bookends from the album, are the songs that have been released. The padding in between sounds like Gaga has spent too much time in the euro trash clubs of the continent, filling the CD with songs like 'Americano' and 'Judas' (the somewhat forgotten second release, although charting bizarrely well), which sound like Eurovision rejects, if ever I heard them. Whereas 'ScheiBe' (yes, that means the "S" word in German) sounds like a hardcore remix of a Venga Boys flop, fresh out of Ibiza. If you like the German language she bangs on about being "Mother Monster" in the deutsch tongue, so you might enjoy it. Dullness also oozes from 'Bloody Mary', 'Highway Unicorn' and 'Heavy Metal Lover', give these a skip.

So, that's 6 tracks I've scrapped so far. However, there are a few saving graces, the electronic 'Government Hooker' is worth a listen (if you can get through the avant garde attempt to stand out with the irreverant and oh-so-irritating Gaga operatics at the start). If it weren't for the controversial title, this one may have been a worthy release. What a lot of people liked about her last album is that flirted unashamedly with fun bubbles of shameless pop pleasure ('Boys Boys Boys' being the prime example of this) and fans of that will be pleased to hear that there is one on here that strikes similar on this album (albeit giving a lick of political overtone of self empowerment) with 'Bad Kids' - super catchy and will have you singing along on first listen and for days after. The retro 80s pop echoes are a joy. Whilst on the subject of joy, Hair deserves a mention for it's poppy charm also - although it annoys me somewhat that it's a song about teenage rebellion and wanted to be accepted for who she wanted to be, and to be as free as her hair - but I can forgive her that does of cheese for the melodic beauty.

Other released songs that I quite like and feel I should mention are 'Marry the Night' (have you seen the spic 15 minute video for this? If not, don't waste your time), and 'You and I'. Both solid tracks. I have a love hate relationship with the title track 'Born This Way' though, sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't, sometimes I just want to tell Gaga to put a sock in it and play we something with a little more je-ne-sais-quoi...unequivacal escapist pizazz, rather than putting the world to rights. But hey, someone's got to, right? Thus starts my love/hate relationship with the Gaga.

One thing to say about this album, is that it certainly gives a nod to the 80s, some good nods, some not so good. 'Electric Chapel' being the latter. The 80s feel is never clearer than in the successful release (and probably my favourite song) 'The Edge of Glory' and definitely the former of that statement. If ever the saxophone was to make a comeback as the staple ingredient in a pop tune, now is it's chance. Saxotastic moments are rife!

I've had this album in my car for a number of weeks and find myself skipping tracks all the time, to the point where I listen to 7 of the 15 tracks. Everyone says the 2nd album is the toughest (especially if your first one was a hit) and here it certainly feels like she succumbed to that pressure and clobbered together any old bunch of audible scraps, that were lying around on the Euro pop's cutting room floor!

The Gaga...opinions are mixed...so what do you think?

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Let me know what you think about Gaga? Do you like the Born This Way album, or do you prefer The Fame Monster?