Drop Kitchen Sink Here4 Out of 5 Stars
Lady Gaga is a product of delicious, kitschy, wretched excess. She wallows in it like a bubble bath. She throws it into the air like so many bags of glitter and confetti. If there's something flashy, she lunges it for it before anyone else even sees a flicker. And more to the point, she makes absolutely no apologies for madly, passionately being in love with what she's creating and the ingredients she is building her home for Little Monsters from. This is what make Lady Gaga and her "Born This Way" so lovable.
Like Madonna, Elton John or even David Bowie before her, Gaga spares no excess when it comes to her music. Does she want to emulate Springsteen? Then not only will there be a sax solo, Clarence Clemmons himself is going to play it ("Hair," "Edge Of Glory"). Does she think Madonna's expression of Catholic guilt on "Like a Prayer" was a high point of 80's dance music? Then "Judas" and "Black Jesus" are where it's really at for the 2010's. That cover image of Gaga as a human motorcycle is no accident, either. To meet that expectation, she gives herself up to her "Heavy Metal Lover" and then mashes cute girly kitsch with a road-warrior meme on "Highway Unicorn." There's nothing Gaga won't try, nor any room for subtleties.
The bonus disc of the deluxe edition proves this point even more by including the "country road" version of the title track. (The other tracks are useless remixes). Gaga is as calculating and cunning as she is creative and wild. The song "Born This Way" references Madonna's "Express Yourself," "The Queen" (one of the deluxe edition's extra tracks) references Queen's "Killer Queen" while Brian May plays lead guitar on "You and I." "The Edge Of Glory" - along with the title song, my favorite on the album - takes its cues from all those 80's Bon Jovi and Springsteen anthems. The Mother Monster knows that this is her moment and she's using it to both pay tribute to all the influences that came before her as well as establish that she is every bit their creative equal. That's what makes "Born This Way" a terrific pop album and Lady Gaga herself such a fascinating artist.
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