8 out of 10 / A-
The Fame Monster was originally going to be part of a 2-disc re-release of Lady GaGa’s debut album The Fame. GaGa decided to offer Monster as a separate album as well as in the 2-disc package, and it was a very wise decision. An improvement in virtually every way from her still-enjoyable debut album, Monster does not need the tracks from The Fame to support it. This is not a collection of last-minute singles and remixes but is instead a solid album that shows GaGa taking a few steps in several directions at once from her neon-lit, candy-colored debut.
GaGa goes deeper in this album than she had on Fame, which concerned itself primarily with money, status, dancing, and the occasional flirtation with disco sticks. Monster is almost the flip side of that mixture, a sometimes amusing, sometimes dark (but never bleak) look at the fall-out from a life spent seeking fame and fortune. While not every track is intended as a deep revelation about the woman behind the music, several of the tracks often a stark glimpse inside that was only hinted at previously. On Fame, GaGa sang that she “liked it rough”, but on Monster, she only feels intimacy with someone else when they literally “take a bite of [her] bad girl meat.”
Metaphors aren’t the only additional layers on the album, though. GaGa’s production has become more dynamic and her approaches to the material more varied. 80s sounds are still prominent and are even more dominant in some cases, like the synth tom runs in “Monster” or the instrumental hooks of “Dancer In The Dark.” Many songs sound like GaGa is finding new uses for old loops, trying to re-interpret and comment on her own music by turning her own signature sounds against herself like on “So Happy I Could Die.” GaGa’s voice seems stronger and more confident, and the lead vocal is rarely over-processed or auto-tuned.
Lead single “Bad Romance” still remains a standout track, even among the other excellent songs on the album. “Alejandro” is an infectious mix of ABBA melodies and Ace Of Base’s electro-reggae-pop (she even copies some of their vocal arrangements). “Monster” and “Dancer In The Dark” use 80s club sounds to comment on abusive relationships (“He ate my heart and then he ate my brain”) and the destructive side of fame respectively. “Dancer”, which should definitely be a single release, has GaGa subverting Madonna’s “Vogue” rap to reference women who died tragically like Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana. GaGa also steps outside her synth-heavy comfort zone with the sexy blues stomp of “Teeth” and the 1970s, Queen-inspired ballad “Speechless”, a vast improvement on the similar “Brown Eyes” from Fame. Beyonce even shows up, channeling Sasha Fierce, on the disco-fied “Telephone.” The iTunes release contains a remix of “Bad Romance” by Starsmith which is nice but unnecessary especially in the commpressed “mixshow edit” version presented here.
The Fame Monster might not garner GaGa any new fans. Honestly, at this point, the vast majority of music consumers have made up their minds about her one way or the other. But Monster shows an artist evolving and examining her own stage persona, and it’s a good sign of things to come. If you love GaGa, you’ll love Monster. If you don’t love GaGa, you’re out of luck. It’s clear that she’s not even close to going away.
