The Fame

Best of 2008

Song: The Fame
Artist: Lady GaGa
Album: The Fame



Here’s a slow burner for me. I had been hearing about this Lady GaGa here and there and then finally heard her overseas hit “Just Dance” which has only recently hit the airwaves and clubs here in the States. Then I started to see her advertize on Logo and I was interested enough to get the record and see what she’s about. Besides, I love good electro-pop. But initially I wasn’t sold. I sort of wrote her off as a very light flash in the pan, but as I began to listen to the record the hooks started to take hold, and then lyrically, I thought some of it was rather interesting.

“Just Dance” is the most mainstream of the tracks, but I found myself getting into some of the other sunny club jams like “Summerboy,” “Eh, Eh,” and “Poker Face.” Even the one slow jam, “Brown Eyes” had a cute semi-epic charm, with a great hook. But further listens revealed that the album was taking the essence of our celebrity culture, and using them as love metaphors. The more I heard, I thought about how perfect it was for songs of this type to be produced as pop club music. The themes of the record being what Britney SHOULD be singing about right now. “Paparazzi” uses that “job” as stalker metaphor (“I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me, papa-paparazzi”) and “The Fame” uses our culture’s glitz obsession to marry lyrics that glamorize that life, and then debase it.

If you have a taste for sunny pop with a techno-lite vibe, you’ll really like “The Fame.” And give it the time to grow on you.

She’s also currently feuding with Christina Aguilera if that does anything for you.

Enjoy.

Poker Face


Beautiful, Dirty, Rich