Born This Way is Lady Gaga’s 3rd album; and not only does it live up to the expectations of those who love The Fame and The Fame Monster it far surpasses them.
Lady Gaga has collected many achievements and awards for her contributions to the music industry. They include five Grammy awards, two Guinness World Records and the estimated sale of 15 million albums and 51 million singles worldwide.
Add to that – Billboard named her the top selling artist of 2010 and the “2010 Artist of the Year”. Taking all of that into consideration it would come as no surprise if the expectations of her third album are high.
Before the album was even released, the 1st single set a music industry record! Born This Way was the fastest single in history to reach sales of 1,000,000 copies worldwide, and that sale was made five days after the single’s release on February 11th.
In between the release of Born This Way the single in February and Born This Way the album in May, there was the release of the 2nd and 3rd singles – Judas and The Edge of Glory which both charted very well. And then there’s the album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 selling 1,108,000 copies and is Gaga’s first number-one album in the US.
The album debuted at number one in Australia, becoming her second number-one album there after The Fame Monster. Born This Way was certified platinum in Australia in its first week, by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 70,000 copies.
I have the Special 2 disc edition here and it contains extra musical content to impress Gaga-heads. The 2nd disc contains dance remixes of 5 of the Born This Way tracks and a Country Road version of Born This Way.
It’s a little something extra, a little something special and a great addition for those fans that love the club scene, thumping bass lines and synthesized tracks. I was expecting them to be extended, I think because remix just makes me think extended, but they aren’t – though they have been given a new feel and a new sound.
Disc 1, it’s really hard to try and get my head around what to say about disc 1. There are lots of different sounds on this album, sounds that hail back to quite different periods of music history.
Musically they evoke images of the disco era and contemporary pop of the 80’s and 90’s, for the most part!!! There is also some much heavier material, some operatic vocals and country, not to mention the synthesizers and thumping bass line! Quite a diverse range of musical style to keep you intrigued.
Lyrically, on the other hand, is quite a different story. Gaga explores some quite important issues in the quest for freedom, acceptance and individuality regardless of gender or sexuality. One major theme that has been gaining quite a bit of attention and debate is religion – which is discussed often throughout the tracks on Born This Way, even including church bells and monks voices.
Vocally Lady Gaga manages to sound completely different from track to track – and sometimes even within tracks. A definite demonstration of the immense talent and potential Lady Gaga embodies.
The surprise for me was in discovering that not only did Lady Gaga write all of the tracks on the album, she also shares producing credits for all of the tracks and remixing credit for the country version of Born This Way. That’s not even all of it!
The vocals are all Gaga and the backing vocals on all but two tracks are also Lady Gaga which I thought was pretty special.
Track Listing
Disc 1
- Marry The Night
- Born This Way
- Government Hooker
- Judas
- Americano
- Hair
- Scheiße
- Bloody Mary
- Black Jesus + Amen Fashion
- Bad Kids
- Fashion Of His Love
- Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)
- Heavy Metal Lover
- Electric Chapel
- The Queen
- Yoü And I
- The Edge Of Glory
Disc 2
- Born This Way – The Country Road Version
- Judas – DJ White Shadow Remix
- Marry The Night – Zedd Remix
- Scheiße – DJ White Shadow Mugler
- Fashion Of His Love – Fernando Garibay Remix
- Born This Way – Jost & Naaf Remix
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!