Lady Gaga is my favorite artist of all time. And I know it is cliché, but pop is, genuinely, my favorite genre.
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in my girlfriend’s living room with her and a few of her friends, and the question, “Who is the queen of pop?” came up. Of course, Gaga came to mind, but I, the biggest Gaga fan I know, hesitated.
Post-“A Star is Born,” she has not released a lot of music.
She has become more than a pop star. She co-starred alongside Adam Driver in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” two years ago; she is going to co-star alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” next year. At this point in her career, it is clear acting is every bit as important to her as music.
In Gaga’s hiatus, the other artist that came to mind, Beyoncé, is releasing some of the best music, if not the best music, of her career.
She dropped “RENAISSANCE,” an album-of-the-year contender — and possibly her best — last year. And although Gaga put out “Chromatica” in 2020, it did not have the impact “The Fame,” “The Fame Monster” or “Born This Way” — or “ARTPOP” — had.
Gaga’s third studio album has stood the test of time, 10 years’ time, which is ironic, as the record was met with mixed reviews upon its release.
Although I do not think it can compare to “The Fame Monster,” my favorite album of all time, I do believe it is in the conversation for her second-best record.
With hits “Judas,” “Bloody Mary” and “The Edge of Glory,” among others, “Born This Way” cemented her as the late 2000s and early 2010s’ queen of pop. Born in the afterglow of “A Star is Born,” “Chromatica,” full of the electronic, glitchy sounds which defined her early career, was a return to form.
But as much as I love those albums, I come back to “ARTPOP” more than either of them — and not just because of its bright, eye-catching cover, whose design stands out from the black-and-white monochrome of “The Fame Monster” and “Born This Way.”
It is an anomaly in her discography. I do not have the technical musical knowledge to explain how or why, but it sounds different. It is not as “clubby” or “dancy” as any of her previous projects, which is not to say I do not enjoy the late-night pomp of her other albums; I love it. But when you have been listening to an artist’s work for years, the risks get bolder; the swings become bigger.
While you could play many, if not the majority, of “ARTPOP” at a party, its songs do not have the dance-the-night-away quality — or not to the same extent, at least — of “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance” or, obviously, “Just Dance.”
And that is not a bad thing — at all. Despite not being on my pregame playlist, “Venus,” “Donatella” and “Mary Jane Holland” are three of my 10, maybe of my five, favorite Gaga songs.
“ARTPOP” is not a no-skips record for me. There are a handful of tracks I do not care for, “Jewels N’ Drugs” being the biggest culprit. Maybe I am blinded because it has been three years since her last project, and her acting career has put her musical future in question. But on its 10-year anniversary, I am nostalgic for “ARTPOP,” flaws and all.
