Gaga's discography.

She's very bold! Not all of them are winners but some of them are good!

Believe it or not, one of the first artists i ever loved was Lady Gaga. I remember discovering her through a CD which contained the “Greatest Hits of 2008”. Poker Face was the second song there. As i became more obsessed with her music videos, i asked my parents to purchase her first CD for me. And they did! I listened to The Fame Monster (International edition) on my way to school everyday.

I consumed everything related to her on a daily basis. My parents tell me i used to wake up singing Bad Romance. As she started her Born This Way era, i was at the peak of my love for her. The new music was just as captivating to me but my parents told me they wouldn’t give me her new CD because there was a track called Judas.

They didn’t get real camp.

So, as i lost track of her latest release i was still there when she released Applause and G.U.Y, also when Million Reasons and Perfect Illusions were out. I watched A Star Is Born the year it dropped (and listened to the soundtrack too), but i didn’t consume her studio albums up until 2019, the year i started listening to more music.

To my surprise, i didn’t love the rest of the discography as much as The Fame Monster but it was so interesting to me how diverse it was. From pop/country/rock tracks, funky songs, powerful ballads and as time has passed by, i have formed my own opinions on each record and the biggest strengths and weaknesses of each.

Almost all of them have one thing in common: A large creative vision with mixed execution. Depending on who she worked with, her songwriting or the tunes themselves are not as strong as they should be. Anyway, i’ll explain this more as i go on so here is my ranking of her discography and my opinion on each of the albums!

Disclaimer: I won’t include the ASIB soundtrack (would rank high if i did) nor her Jazz albums (which are awful to me). Oh! the Chromatica remix album is not going to be here. It´s fine! Not my fave but not awful at all.

6. Joanne.

Listen, i was disappointed from my first listen. It’s not because of the genre she chose, i love some country albums! This is my prime example of her vision being far more interesting than the execution of the project. Her songwriting improved a lot during this time, she decided to strip down her vocals following up Cheek To Cheek and she was proving herself to be a vocalist but also a songwriter that could do much more than electropop hits! (even though she had some cuts in her discography that could have proven this before).

I thought this album would sound like MANiCURE from ARTPOP (An amazing track to me) but then i stumbled upon A-YO and i knew i was up to no good. Diamond Heart, the opening track, is fine. Good even. The lyrics summon that vulnerability she pretended to access through this album. Her vocal performance is incredible here but what really convinced me was the bridge. Tracks like this, the title track, Dancin’ In Circles, Angel Down or Sinner’s Prayer make me understand her vision and the documentary she dropped in 2017 made me appreciate her intentions far more.

The problem with this album is… how short the production falls compared to every other department. This was her second best album lyrically when it dropped. Some of her best vocal performances are here! But the lack of diversity makes this so uninteresting compared to what she’d been doing before.

I don’t even think it’s about the instrumentation chosen for each song, it’s about the tune making. She made a country album as a pop star. She wanted to approach these songs from the perspective of a hit maker… that’s why we have songs like John Wayne, Perfect Illusion, A-YO or Dancin’ In Circles. Which thematically are incoherent but they were all candidates to be that “big single”. And the result of that was one of her most personal songs becoming the biggest hit of this era (Boosted by a Superbowl performance if we’re being serious).

An arguable slay.

Joanne is catchy at its best but forgettable and bland as its worst.

5. Born This Way.

This might be controversial but i don’t love Born This Way. If i’m being honest, i dislike at least 40% of it.

The strongest component of this album are its hits. Bloody Mary being the late bloomer thanks to Wednesday is one of her best songs ever. Just as You and I, Marry The Night and The Edge of Glory. The title track is an anthem! I remember the music video being hypnotizing to me when i was 10. I don´t know if it holds up today for me though. And Judas has one of her best choruses and bridges, but the verses are too obnoxious for my liking.

There are also great deep cuts! Scheisse is fun… well, that’s it.

At first, i knew i was getting into an album that defined the life of so many people so i proceeded with caution. I thought maybe nostalgia had something to do with people loving it but as i listened more, i understood it’s just not for me. The production is to say the least… not bad? i enjoy it depending on the track. It tries to be campy but it doesn’t defies the traditional structure of pop tunes? and i’m fine with it. My biggest problem with this album has nothing to do with the way it sounds.

her best music video.

It’s her lyrics. The writing on this album is terrible??? And what pisses me off is that i know she could do better. She was penning songs to sound anthemic and extravagant but they ended up sounding corny to me.

I could be girl, unless you want to be man
I could be sex, unless you want to hold hands
I could be anything, I could be everything (Iku, iku)
I could be mom, unless you want to be dad (Ay, mi papito!)

LIKE?????

She tries so hard to be edge cutting and defiant but her writing is as vapid as it is weak. I’ll always love the biggest hits of this album but i don’t think i can get past her approach to songwriting on here.

4. Chromatica.

Listen, the gap between this and the last album is kind of big? I actually admire and appreciate this project a great deal.

I thought she was fucking joking when she dropped Stupid Love. That shitty music video made an enemy out of me immediately. All the hype i had vanished up until Rain On Me dropped. I absolutely adored that collaboration from the first instant.

Then Sour Candy dropped and my expectations went over the roof. When the album dropped, i got the chance to listen to it the same night. Unfortunately, i didn’t like it on my first listen. I thought the lyrics were too silly and the songs were too “basic”.

I decided to give it more chances and i’m glad i did. I discovered a lot of the themes that were the backbone of the album and it hit me: This is one of her best works lyrically!

Rain On Me being a song about the struggles she goes through as a alcoholic trying to numb the pain, in 911 we listen to her speak about her relationship with antidepressants and pills that helped her maintain herself sane, Sine From Above is about music saving her life (also a reference to her relationship with god), Fun Tonight is about her relationship with fame and how it’s caused so much pain in her life. I must say, every song here is covering so many subjects that she’d spoken about in the past but with a focus and sharpness that goes above and beyond.

A beautiful example is the second verse of 911:

Keep my dolls inside diamond boxes
Save 'em 'til I know I'm gon' drop this
Front I've built around my oasis
Paradise is in my hands
Holdin' on so tight to this status
It's not real, but I'll try to grab it
Keep myself in beautiful places
Paradise is in my hands

The way she depicts her desire to keep her mood stable so she can “behave” in front of everyone is brilliant. The outro of the song where she sings “please patch the line” is one of my favorite moments in her discography.

Also we need to talk about Replay. I knew she still had it when i heard this. Oh my goodness. Her growl on the bridge, the disco beat, THE DIANA ROSS SAMPLE!!! My favorite song of this record with Sour Candy, Babylon, 911 and Alice.

The weakest component of this record is the production. I believe Bloodpop has really good ideas and is a talented person (allegedly) but songs like Free Woman, 1000 Doves, Sine From Above and Fun Tonight could’ve had a more colorful palette of sounds. It’s sad how the poetry she wrote for each of these songs sometimes gets overshadowed by the fact that their beats are weak. Specially in an album with production as grand as Stupid Love’s. Yeah, the lyrics suck but the tune is STRONG. The beat will have you dancing immediately.

Anyway, this album is special in her career. I wish she would’ve involved more people in the making of the songs but overall i believe this to be a strong release.

3. The Fame.

This is a classic. The first 4 tracks are all hits! Just Dance, LoveGame, Paparazzi and Poker Face? This is how you start an album.

I think of this album as a star being born (I tried!) There are deep cuts just as good as the big singles. Boys, Boys, Boys, Summerboy, I Like It Rough, Beautiful, Dirty Rich. The problem with some of the songs is that lyrically they tend to be redundant. Money Honey, Starstruck (the song would be great if it was shorter) or the title track may be great examples of that.

As its highs aim for the sky, its lows barely scratch that adventurous feeling. I’m glad its follow up chose quality over quantity because several of these tracks could’ve been cut. It would’ve been a perfect 11 or 12 tracks album.

The topics on this album were recurrent. She knew she was going to be a star and that was reflected through this. She studied the life of rich famous people and their privileges. In the Paparazzi music video, she highlighted how normalized it is in society to see women getting abused or killed and assuming the blame is on the victim. She was singing about liking women in Poker Face! Which, to me, was an absolute surprise since i only got to read the lyrics years after listening to the song (My english was not that good to be honest).

The criticism she faced was very misogynistic. The derogatory terms she got called and the amount of things she’d went through was awful but she was still unapologetic, defiant and bold.

Gaga’s uprising brought a weird but fascinating pop star that defined a generation!

2. ARTPOP.

Talking about weird…

Gaga got to a point of her career where she wanted to make something fresh and exciting. She found her sound very early in her career and from 2011 and on she embarked on a road full of new genres and approaches to making music. The first step towards that place was ARTPOP. This was the album i was the most scared of checking out. The reviews were mixed but they were extreme! People either loved it or absolutely despised it.

I was shocked when i got into it and discovered one of my favorite projects by her.

Listen, all of those traits that Gaga was aiming for on Born This Way, the extravagance, the absurdity and camp that possessed her during that time is still on ARTPOP. The thing is, there is no longer the desire to make these “Timeless anthems” of liberation and acceptance. ARTPOP’s concept is basically… taking the pop formulas that she’d been using since The Fame, adding the EDM trends that were going on during 2011-2013 and making it as reckless and amped as possible.

The obnoxiousness of the lyrics stays on this one but there’s more focus on the production rather than them. And it works! Venus, Sexxx Dreams, Aura and G.U.Y are songs about sex. Applause, Donatella, Fashion! and Gypsy are about the nature of fame and how her life changed thanks to touring, her status and money. Mary Jane Holland is about her loving weed, Dope is about her wanting someone to be sober. There are varied themes on some particular songs but overall, it’s an album that focuses on both sides of its name. Art: referencing classic art pieces, her wanting to experiment and breaking the formulas she’s been following up until then and her exploring the life of an artist. The struggles of it, the extravagance that comes with it and the excess that may even lead someone to lose themselves. On the other side, pop was to her not only a genre, but a lifestyle! She referenced pop culture figures, moments and she was concerned about making this album feel like a revision of everything she loves about pop.

Its sounds are punchy, sometimes aggressive and the vocal performances match that energy perfectly. She’s loud, abrasive and sexy throughout these tracks. It’s invigorating how this album is what it’s meant to be. You can tell the execution of these songs aimed towards the same heights as she envisioned them to go. Everyone understood what they’re doing. And it might not have worked sometimes (Jewels N Drugs is deplorable. Worst song in the entire planet. Dope is also… bad, just as the R Kelly version of Do What U Want).

I’d rather just talk about the music because putting up with her behavior would mean me ranting about how much i hated her during this era. My goodness.

Nevertheless, ARTPOP is musically what it intends to be. As she said on the title track, it “could mean anything”. And to me, this was a very excellent attempt at reintroducing her sound through a different lens.

1. The Fame Monster.

This is Gaga at her peak.

Every song is masterfully put together and its concept about fear is as impactful today as it was back then.

Bad Romance is still impressive. She describes love as something painful, inevitable and draining. She’s holding on to this person because she’s infatuated by them. It’s her own version of Phantom Thread (2017). A very fucked up romance that’s filled with desire! It’d be dangerous to get in their way or trying to tell them that it’s not healthy because they’re addicted to eachother.

Alejandro is a very sad song if you read into it. She was a victim of abuse and that impacted the way she built relationships with other people, specially men. On this song, she’s portraying that fear of falling for someone like her abuser. All of these men are trying to reach her but she’s unobtainable. Fiona Apple said it best: “'I’m amorous but out of reach. A still life drawing of a peach”.

Monster is about her falling for this guy who’s probably going to hurt her. She’s talking about him with her girlfriend and she told her she might’ve seen him before (even fucked him) but she knows he’s trouble. Either way, she let him in and “he ate her heart and then he ate her brain”. He causes a lot of feelings in her but now all she can think about is him.

Speechless is a song she wrote for her father to convince him to get a surgery that he needed. It fits thematically because of the fear losing him might’ve produced in her. It’s a bit out of the more electronic instrumentation she used on the other songs, this one’s rustic and live. It’s an evolution from her first piano rock ballad (Brown Eyes).

Dance In The Dark is about her fight with her self esteem. It’s representative of all the insecurities she’d been accumulating throughout her life and how many people (like her boyfriend) had something to say about her body or behavior. She loves to dance in the dark because it’s safe, it allows her to hide everything she is to find comfort. During the bridge, she starts finding her own freedom through these women that have inspired her. Women that have suffered like her, that have been scrutinized and shamed up until not being able to handle it anymore. She found power in dancing in the dark. She understood that darkness didn’t mean she had to hide. She learned to find her own light there.

Telephone is one of the best collaborations of all time. She’s found the confidence to say no. To party, have fun and not allowing anyone to bother her. So Happy I Could Die is a song about the fear of becoming an addict.

She described Teeth to be a song about the fear of the truth:

It is meant to mean two things: the first one kind of juvenile sexual provocative connotation is about oral sex, but also the monster in the song is fear of the truth. “Show me your teeth” means “tell me the truth” and I think that for a long time in my life that I replaced sex with the truth.

This album will go down in history as one of the best pop albums ever made. Every song is important and relevant. I cannot stress enough how much i love it

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Concluding this journey, i find Gaga’s discography satisfactory in its majority but it could’ve been better with more people involved. Her versatility is very bold and innovative but we need more hands that can help her realize the execution in its entirety. She’s a great songwriter, vocalist and producer but with the right people, i’m sure she’ll be able to make something even better than Chromatica.

Also, some of her music videos might need to get analyzed by someone who knows about film because from the beginning (Skip the Joanne era. Don’t let the John Wayne music video fool you. Also, you can skip Stupid Love and the jazz ones) she had very interesting ideas and she really cares about visuals (when she wants to).

I want Gaga to explore her acting more. She’s a very committed person and i know with the right script she’ll be able to give her best. Perhaps, we need someone like Ang Lee, the Coen brothers, Eggers or Aronofsky to cast her! Hmmm let me make some calls.