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Celeb News: ARTPOP Official Reviews: 61/100
Member Since: 9/13/2012
Posts: 29,559
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Lemme just copy and paste my thoughts from the ARTPOP thread, if they're of any interest to y'all 
Quote:
Originally posted by Harajuku
Those ****en reviews 
But i 'll just say what i said in the other thread in short.
Gaga is held to another standard than a lot of her peers and shes in that point in her career where the critics are going to expect something great out of her. while ARTPOP maybe a good album lets not act like Gaga didn't lead everyone to believe the album was something it wasn't. Plus the title isnt exactly helping
and since Gaga is so self aware lets hope this pushes her to work harder next time.
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MTE, a big part of it comes down to the title. I love, love the music but I can admit that I'm not sure how sold I am yet on the ART part of it. Of course she says she has lots more stuff planned for "performance pieces," the music videos, further app updates, etc., but that doesn't change the music.
Now if she wanted ART part of it to be viewed in the context of the entire project, not just the music on the album, she should've revealed more of that prior to the album release. For example, Biophilia did really well in reviews even though not all of the critics were 100% sold on the music (though I was  ), because they felt the app + inventions/new instruments + performances that Björk had revealed so far fully completed the concept/project. Perhaps the critics' opinions will change a bit once Gaga reveals more of the inventions and performances and app features, but she should've launched the album with a lot more of the ART aspects to begin with. She started off really well with VMAs + Applause video + Swinefest, but then she kinda disappeared for a bit, and then re-appeared in Europe with some uncharacteristically underwhelming performances. And the app is a lot of fun, I've had a fun time making gifs, but I don't totally see how it ties into the ARTPOP project... hopefully the future updates will make it clearer. Right now, it just feels like a (good) extension of LM.com.
And I agree that in Gaga's case, it might be good for her to be torn down (even if she doesn't really deserve the lashings, cause I still think ARTPOP is a great album). She needs that fire, which is what made her so exciting in the first place.
TLDR: I think ARTPOP is amazing POP album, 4.5/5 overall, but I'm not sure how to rate it as an ARTPOP album/project overall.
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 13,434
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Quote:
Originally posted by Goosey
And how about some letter grades...
The Fame Monster (critics): C+
The Fame Monster (fans): B-
ARTPOP (critics): D-
ARTPOP (fans): D+
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Member Since: 9/9/2012
Posts: 3,674
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Quote:
Originally posted by chilluminati
On top of the fact that the EP was really good, also.
Even Pitchfork (who does not care for this kind of pop) almost gave her an 8 for that. They put "Telephone" in their Top Tracks of the Year list.
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That was 2010. They also put Paparazzi and Bad Romance in their '09 top 100 tracks list. Whenever my friends try to drag my taste since I'm only listening to Madonna an Gaga qua mainstream pop I always mention TFM being almost an 8.0 album haha. It's all jokes obviously, but still. She was so good back then and a few songs on BTW still sound amazing imo.
This is how I see it:
BTW = TFM > AP = TF
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Member Since: 3/15/2013
Posts: 5,210
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You guys really need to consider the possibility that, yknow, some critics don't like the songs either. Yes, the title didn't help, but the songs themselves aren't a step forward for Gaga, they're not fresh, there's no change in subject matter, and there isnt even any straight up radio ready infectious pop songs (which is what I believe the "Sorry For Party Rocking" comment was about).
Whether or not you personally like the songs is different, but don't just pin it on the album title or Gagas personal life or say "Gaga is judged harshly because everyone knows shes above everyone else" (Wtf)
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Member Since: 9/9/2012
Posts: 3,674
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cheers
Gypsy and Dope are so awful |
Whoever you are, cheers! These two are the only tracks I deleted off of my iTunes, because I think they're absolutely horrible.
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Member Since: 10/29/2010
Posts: 29,249
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cheers
Gypsy and Dope are so awful |
I can see why some people may dislike Dope, but Gypsy is one of the best songs she has ever recorded in her career.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/20/2011
Posts: 18,900
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Mess. Artpop deserves 70 at least just because of Gypsy
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Member Since: 5/12/2011
Posts: 1,278
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 8,689
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Quote:
Originally posted by WFL
“Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura?” she asks on the first track. Yes please. Does she show us that? Not really. Her subject matter is the same old sex stuff, fashion stuff, fame stuff while the music remains heavily EDM-centric, less Artpop than Europop.
This is true.  |
this legit hits the nail on the head
I like Sexxx Dreams but yeah ^^^
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Member Since: 11/17/2011
Posts: 52,363
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there is absolutely nothing wrong with that graph
graphs are made to manipulate data and make them seem a certain way by the creator but it's an accurate graph nonetheless
had the graph started at 0 then it would be too big and he'd probably get a wp for being "disruptive"
why waste space...you crop it to show only the necessary region
bottomline...the graph is completely fine 
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Member Since: 1/20/2012
Posts: 25,077
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Quote:
Originally posted by Concept & Theory
Gurl, I am an Economics student, so yeah... basically, I know more Math than your superficial knowledge. The graph is distorted, starting from 60 in the vertical axis. Furthermore, there's a significant (yet unnecessary) space between the numbers in the Y axis, to make it look like a drastic decline. I am not trying to be a genius, since that's basic and easy Mathematics, everyone should notice this. The graph is not wrong, but it was made with the purpose of making it seem drastic.
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omW
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Member Since: 7/22/2012
Posts: 6,744
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Quote:
Originally posted by BAYAR
That was 2010. They also put Paparazzi and Bad Romance in their '09 top 100 tracks list. Whenever my friends try to drag my taste since I'm only listening to Madonna an Gaga qua mainstream pop I always mention TFM being almost an 8.0 album haha. It's all jokes obviously, but still. She was so good back then and a few songs on BTW still sound amazing imo.
This is how I see it:
BTW = TFM > AP = TF
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Yeah. Those songs were great, probably the best of her career. And that's what made her so likable. Her singles were some high quality stuff and still, well fun to listen to.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 11/5/2011
Posts: 100,491
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Quote:
Originally posted by Marioland
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It's already included in the score.
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Member Since: 9/25/2011
Posts: 12,630
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Member Since: 11/17/2011
Posts: 52,363
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i see some og y'all getting ahead of yourself with these attacks on Gypsy and Dope
they are the best tracks on ARTPOP and without them this album would be much worse and have worse reviews...sit down and listen to the holy tracks
they are two of Gaga's best 
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 927
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Quote:
Originally posted by baphomet
WOW how hard is it for the critics to focus on the music?
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they are girl.. they are :/
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 4,871
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I think Dope is one of the best songs on the album. 
I never saw a good reason as to why someone doesn't like Dope,so..
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Member Since: 3/4/2011
Posts: 2,554
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I see no lies
Gypsy 50
Dope 6
DWYW 6
everything else 0
= 62
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Member Since: 4/29/2012
Posts: 15,977
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I think it's funny that the monsters always used to drag Katy for her metacritic score but now say critics are irrelevant
Not hating just stating 
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 58,053
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Quote:
Originally posted by DG1
Drowned In Sound - Lady Gaga, ARTPOP Review
“I consider Lady Gaga the Picasso of the entertainment world.”
Tony Bennett
ART
ARTPOP
(Pop-art)
Arty Pop
Poppy Art
A(aaaaaaaaarr)r(rrrgh)t! POP!
So... Lady Gaga wants to be AN ARTIST. Problem is, she isn’t too concerned about being a good artist. ARTPOP’s cover has been designed by bad artist extraordinaire Jeff Koons, a man for whom no subject matter is too kitsch, no theme too derivative, no statue of Michael Jackson and his chimpanzee too retina-shatteringly golden.
Rambunctious arty man Will Gompertz has made a commendable attempt to eulogise Koons’ garish ARTPOP artwork. He says it includes art-historical references to Botticelli’s ‘Venus’ as well as (less convincingly) Andy Warhol’s ‘Marilyn Diptych’ and Tracey Emin’s ‘I’ve Got It All’. But shouldn’t a true “masterpiece” (as the arty man calls it) do more than simply allude to older, superior works? The Van Gogh-aping cover of Joni Mitchell’s Turbulent Indigo is no masterpiece. The Géricault-defacing cover of Rum Sodomy & The Lash is no masterpiece, even if it is fleetingly amusing. Lord knows, the horrible recreation of Manet’s ‘Le déjeuner sur l’herbe’ for Bow Wow Wow’s The Last of the Mohicans is certainly no masterpiece. Koons’ art, this cover included, contends Gompertz, “asks questions about values, taste, capitalism, reality and beauty.” Does it? What questions? The cover is far less concerned with asking questions than making bold, conventional statements. This album is by Lady Gaga. This album is entitled ARTPOP. Lady Gaga wants to be viewed as a (bad) artist or as a work of (bad) art. Lady Gaga remains insatiably thirsty for our attention.
Virtually the only defence one can make for Koons’ bad art oeuvre is that it contains some measure of satirical intent, that it holds a mirror up to the superficiality of Western culture, even if it often seems more s******ingly adolescent than caustically enlightening. Gaga doesn’t even s******. She barely even smiles. She just sits there in her lobster costume, acting all haughty and mysterious.
Like Warhol before him and Hirst & co. after, at least Koons sells his bad artworks to the crass collectors who are wealthy and gullible enough to afford them. Gaga sells her bad art to those impressionable ‘Little Monsters’ who fork out their pocket money/scant wages on being fooled into thinking there’s actually something empowering about strutting your famished body around in some glittery knickers before a group of rabid spectators. (Don’t get me wrong, Gaga’s also made some benevolent, progressive statements and actions, particularly on the subject of gay rights. Although, if I was being cynical - moi? - I’d say that, for whatever socio-cultural reasons, given that homosexuals form a large proportion of Gaga’s audience, for her to neglect their cause would be a bit like Alan Titchmarsh remaining curiously silent on the plight of Britain’s gardeners.)
Like most of the mega-level popstars, Gaga has some killer tunes in her repertoire but no classic album. There is still no masterpiece. There are mini-masterpieces, sure (‘Poker Face’, ‘Bad Romance’, ‘Telephone’...) but come on Gargles, where’s your Thriller? Your Sign O The Times? Your Rumours? Hell, where’s your Sorry For Party Rocking? ARTPOP certainly isn’t it.
Gaga promised us an album on which she would lose the wig and the catsuit to serve up something more personal than before. ARTPOP isn’t that either. “Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura?” she asks on the first track. Yes please. Does she show us that? Not really. Her subject matter is the same old sex stuff, fashion stuff, fame stuff while the music remains heavily EDM-centric, less Artpop than Europop.
‘Sexxx Dreams’ finds her orgasmic wails double-tracked with the kind of dead-eyed whispering of Madonna’s ‘Erotica’ but would be a lot sexier if the tidal wave synths weren’t interspersed with the impotence-inducing sound of the Seinfeld bass twang. With its throbbing club beats, skitterish electro effects, and Freddie Mercury operatics, ‘Mary Jane Holland’ has to be the least weed-friendly paean to marijuana ever recorded. Sabbath’s ‘Sweet Leaf’ it ain’t.
In the fast-flowing world of pop music, ARTPOP’s guest vocalists may seem a little old fashioned, but ‘Jewels ‘n’ Drugs’ with TI, Too $hort and Twista has a contagious low-riding gangsta swagger. If you can overlook the dubiousness of a young woman submissively pouting the lines “Do what you want, what you want with my body” at a man who was once accused of videotaping himself weeing on an underage girl, the duet with R Kelly succeeds on its own shallow 50-Shades-of-Soul terms. It’s here in the middle of this long, stodgy record that the tastiest morsels lie. The title track has a slow and seductive ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ groove and the angry zoomorphic repulsion of ‘Swine’ is conveyed with near Riot Grrl levels of snarled disgust. And, yes, ‘Donatella’ does momentarily lampoon the immorality and vacuity at the heart of the fashion industry: “Walk down the runway but don’t puke, it’s okay / You just had a salad today”. Shame it’s immediately followed by the bland, seemingly sincere celebratory plod that is ‘Fashion!’
Plenty of “touch me”, “I touch myself”, “put your hands all over my body” lines are thrown generously around like condoms at a swingers’ party. More substantial sentiments are few and far between. “My artpop could mean anything,” Gaga theorises at one point. Well does it mean anything? Does it mean nothing? Or does it mean something fairly boring? “I want you more than dope,” she howls on the unhinged, stripped-back ballad ‘Dope’. If this is what she meant by something more personal, perhaps we don’t want her to reveal herself after all. It’s a chorus that even Marilyn Manson might consider a little juvenile.
Indeed, I can’t help thinking that Marilyn Manson hangs over the whole of Gaga’s career (probably upside-down, dressed as a bat). Taking Ziggy Stardust as their blueprint, Brian Warner and Stefani Germanotta both invented extravagant alter-egos to propel themselves to superstardom. Stylistic flamboyance helped distract from sonic conventionality, their musical ambitions never matching the adventurousness of their “freaky” costumes, videos and stage-shows.
Sooner or later, all empires are destined to collapse. Some over-expand themselves to unsustainable levels. Others are ravaged by war, revolution, or natural disaster. Some are suddenly overshadowed by a sledgehammer-fellating sex-trafficked Disney refugee.
Beaten to Number 1 by Katy Perry dressed as an Oompa-Loompa and edited out of the Muppets movie, the cracks in Reich Gaga have already appeared and ARTPOP is not strong enough to repair them. Whether you’re an excitable tweenybopper, a hedonistic club-thumpin’ 20-something, or someone who usually listens to post-ambient quasi-retro dronecore and is frankly out of his depth reviewing such a prominent mainstream record, ARTPOP is a decidedly patchy ‘Just Dance’-less disappointment.
So what happens now, Gaga? Will you end up repeating the earlier hits to depleting crowds, churning out ever duller, largely neglected records, sitting alone in your spooky mansion, filling it with expensive real-life skellingtons while pickling your liver with absinthe? Will you wind up collaborating with Mrs Nickelback? Why not get out while you can, when you still have something resembling a strange form of dignity? Your options are many. Here are two:
a) Shun the fickle craving to become (and remain) the biggest popstar on the planet. Rise above it to leave Cyrus, Perry, and Minaj fighting among themselves (probably in their bikinis, in a paddling pool full of mud, as the drooling patriarchy looks on, fiddling with themselves). Become an actual artist. Go properly, fully weird. Take a leaf out of the unorthodox ex-popstar book of Scott Walker or David Sylvian. Aspire to grace the cover of The Wire, not Vanity Fair. Aim not for ephemeral pop notoriety but artistic immortality. You might have to execute your entourage and those who misguidingly advise you to refrain from further indulging your penchant for inaccessible free jazz but it’ll be much more fulfilling, I assure you.
b) Become an actual, actual artist. You know, like what Captain Beefheart did.
RATING: 5/10
50/100 on MetaCritic
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1...eviews/4147121
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Daaaaamn  they aren't wrong..
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