Born This Way
Details
LP / Format
Interscope / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS
83
For all its fire and brimstone, Born This Way doesn’t herald pop’s second coming. But it’s not a bad way to spend the wait.
83
Born This Way is a work of art. Born This Way is trash. Either way, it’s more than just another pop album. The debate will only further cement Lady Gaga’s stardom.
10y
82
Born This Way is an assault of theatrics and 80s throwback. It’s fun, it’s cheesy, it’s everything a mainstream pop album should be.
12y
80
Gaga loves overheated cosmic statements for the same reason she loves dance pop and metal guitars – because she hears them as echoes of her twisted rock & roll heart. That's the achievement of Born This Way: The more excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds.
80
It's a fist-pumping, techno-thumping, electronic explosion that will make you drive faster, dance better and howl along to outrageous lines.
80
Gaga goes over the top and keeps on going: exhilarating, exhausting blockbuster entertainment.
80
You have to admire the way Gaga fearlessly throws herself into, say, a disco mariachi arrangement on Americano, but her frequently righteous tone and overindulgence in clunking Catholic metaphor tends to mire her memorable melodies in schlocky self-help proselytizing.
80
This, perhaps, has always been the thrilling paradox of Lady Gaga – that she can be the most exciting, confounding and mind-bogglingly creative artist on planet pop while still sounding like an early-90s Tampax advert.
80
When Gaga graduated to stadiums, her music clearly followed suit. There's nothing small about this album, and Gaga sings the shit out of every single track.
80
While most 21st-century pop stars pulverize their imperfections into an Auto-Tuned slurry, she boldly wears her audacity like a meat dress. Lady Gaga certainly wasn't born this way, but she's making a convincing case that she's evolving into our most surreally brilliant pop star.
10y
80
Rather than an exercise in hype, what ‘Born This Way’ really is an exercise in the pushing of everything to its ultimate degree. And for all the black, white and silver, it passes that test with flying colours.
12y
80
This drumbeat, pulsating as insistently as Eurodisco, is so persistent that there is an inevitable feeling of anticlimax upon hearing Born This Way for the first time and realizing that Lady Gaga has channeled her grand ambitions into her message, and not her music.
12y
75
Gaga’s commitment to her concept is strong enough that even when she stumbles—as she does repeatedly on Born This Way, particularly lyrically—she does so with panache, purpose, and a sly wink.
12y
70
Born This Way essentially finds Gaga doing more of the same but with a few new production tricks.
12y
70
Born This Way's failure is that it tends to leave Lady Gaga behind in its quest for chart supremacy.
12y
70
It's 61 minutes of schizophrenic metal/rock/country fusions and "sledgehammer beats". Unfathomably, it nearly always works.
4mo
60
Born This Way isn’t a bad album by any means, it’s just that Gaga is so conscious of the image and message she projects that the music is no longer her top priority.
12y
60
Gaga only truly justifies the antics and the outfits when she ditches the shmaltz in favor of some grime, and her messages of non-conformity and social freedom ring truer in tunes with a bit of grit, as well.
60
Born This Way, then, is Gaga’s attempt to be more than just a pop culture phenomenon, a move toward the upper echelons of pop stardom.
12y
50
Born This Way is one mighty confused pop album, fusing some daring songwriting with some remarkably repetitive themes and beats.
12y
40
Born This Way is basically The Fame filtered through the lens of The Fame Monster. There are more components and brief, brief flashes of brilliance, but most of the album is comprised of throw-away junk.
0
Think of this zero as the massive bedazzled orifice out of which our heroine has spawned a new era of popular culture. Think of it as a great American goose egg out of which now emerges a brave, new super-race of rebel losers.
12y
I threw up while listening to this, but it was the most fun I've ever had while throwing up.
The guiltiest of all guilty pleasures.
Also, the worst of all horrible album covers.
Released in 2011, it contains a diverse mix of dance-pop, electro-pop and rock influences. The title song, "Born This Way", is often praised for its message of self-acceptance. The tracks showcase a powerful voice and creative production. Some highlights include “Judas,” “The Edge of Glory,” and “Marry the Night.” Overall, it is an artistically strong album that reflects Gaga's artistic development.
Contributions By
wallver, royalflush, thisisabtlgrnd, FinalLifeline, BonoLightier, philthy, Alex69, erik, jed1mark, Leo Aguilar, MarkyC, heitorao3, sweertner, JediMark, polduanBecome a Donor
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Track List
| 1 | Marry the Night 4:24 | 91 |
| 2 | Born This Way 4:20 | 89 |
| 3 | Government Hooker 4:14 | 83 |
| 4 | Judas 4:09 | 91 |
| 5 | Americano 4:06 | 78 |
| 6 | Hair 5:08 | 82 |
| 7 | Scheiße 3:45 | 86 |
| 8 | Bloody Mary 4:04 | 87 |
| 9 | Bad Kids 3:50 | 73 |
| 10 | Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) 4:15 | 73 |
| 11 | Heavy Metal Lover 4:12 | 80 |
| 12 | Electric Chapel 4:12 | 78 |
| 13 | Yoü and I 5:07 | 87 |
| 14 | The Edge of Glory 5:21 | 93 |
Total Length: 1 hour, 1 minute
Year End Lists
| #3 | / | Slant |
| #6 | / | Rolling Stone |
| #10 | / | Bigger Than The Sound |
| #14 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
| #29 | / | SPIN |
| #30 | / | Pazz and Jop |
| #30 | / | Q Magazine |
| #31 | / | The Guardian |
| #49 | / | Drowned in Sound |
| / | Idolator |
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4mo
People talk so much about the album cover, yet no one talks how a title here is literally named "Scheiße"?
