The Fame Monster

Where The Fame was very 'sparkely' in it's lyrical themes, The Fame Monster is little darker. Gaga makes a lot of references to people in 'the business' acting less than nice to each other. According to Wikipedia(theallknowing).org she wrote these during her tours and promotions of The Fame... so maybe it does fit after all. I was a little disappointed, just because Bad Romance was released in full force first. The rest of the album is good, better than most electronic/dance cds anyways, but Bad Romance is definitely the strongest track. Just because it's Gaga, I was expecting a little more distinction than beep-beep-dance-pop.

She has a strong voice that makes for very energetic music, but it tends to overpower instruments and electronic effects unless they're reined in tight. Most of the tracks have weak moments because of this, her voice is bringing the energy up and the back music just can't seem to keep up with her. Teeth and Bad Romance are the two exceptions to this. Alejandro is fun, if a little bit of a flash back to Ace of Base (it's not a bad thing). Monster and Dance in the Dark are all serviceable, the second or third time I listened to them I was able to overlook the random awkward slow parts. I didn't care for Telephone because the lyrics are unbelievably dumb; it's a collaboration song with Beyonce though, so I'm guessing the radio is going to bludgeon everyone with it regardless. So Happy I Could Die is almost as good as Dance in the Dark but just kind of fizzles out flat. Speechless is a variety inducing ballad. It's not what I typically go to Gaga to hear, but it's decent. There's also a Bad Romance remix by Starship; the original was so good, I wish they had remixed one of the tier 2 tracks instead.

The album is very short. It's practically an EP and I think it was misleading to try to hype it as a completely new album. Still, it's not priced as a full album and the tracks it does have mostly range from average to above average.

I give it 3.5/5.0 Ra Ra Ras.