I gave The Phame Monster a listen after year or so of shelving it, and I have to say, I think monsters see that era through rose colored glasses. I think all 3 singles are beyond flawless, and Bad Romance is eyekawnique, but everything else just seems like filler tbh. Speechless is a sniouxzphest, Monster is kewt but nothing to **** your pants over, and Teeth might as well be renamed "Skip Button." I do, however, ADORE "So Happy I could Die" but after i read about its similarities to Natasha bedingfield's "pocketful of sunshine" or whatever, it sort of took the piss out of the song for me. Dance In the Dark was amazing to me when i first heard it, but at the same time i always thought the production was sloppy- i could literally hear Fernando Garibay banging the keys on garageband for those weird stilted noises in the chorus and verses. Also the spoken-word little bridge thing about kubrick, Jon-Benet, etc. is so obviously reminiscent of Vogue (though I guess Madonna comparisons didn't plague her as severely back then).
I think what makes the record so good is that it's polished at the very least, and the writing on it is solid, without any cringe-worthy lyrics. If she stops having noisy messy productions with poorly mixed vocals and first-draftey non-revised lyrics, she could easily get back that Fame monster cool factor tbh.
thanks for reading my harry potter novel
