The Lady Gaga Rate (Haus Labs now available)

Subwaykid

Staff member
56.

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Black Jesus + Amen Fashion
average: 7.18
Highest: 10 x 9 (@Sprockrooster @GimmeWork @31entrance @abael @Laura Vanderbooben @m_dimitrov @Sanctuary @Remorque @askew)
Lowest: 1 x 1 (@Robsolete)

I always forget how fun this one is until it gets going and becomes a high camp blast. That second verse into the pre-chorus in particular is near perfect. I hope she brings this one out again soon, I remember it being a bit of a surprising showstopper at Roseland.

@GimmeWork calls it "High camp but make it for the runway. Why, yes please Gaga!" And @Maki echoes the runway vibe "First of all, what a song title! This really sounds like a song that would be played at some runway and fashion show, which is a great idea. It still leans onto that overly sweet 80's-inspired tracks for me to enjoy it. I like the production, of course, but the melody should've been stronger. Completely acceptable as a bonus track, because it is weaker than the vast majority of the album" @Petit nain des Îles doesn't know what a standard edition Born This Way is and is correct about it "Shouldn’t have been a bonus track but I guess the special edition is the only one that exists in my mind. I don’t know if I’m going to get blasted for the comparison, but it wouldn’t sound out of place on Tangled Up." Even hetero white mediocrity can't resist the groove as @R27 recalls "I’m pretty sure I remember reading somewhere around the time of the album release (perhaps in a Rolling Stone interview), that this was Justin Timberlake’s favourite song on the album. Really, that statement alone says more about this song, and Timberlake’s taste/output this decade, than I ever could." Speaking of @RJF says "Okay, but this knocks. Cute little origin story V2.1 shout out? Check. Killer chorus? AMEN! I think I've loved it since the first day I heard it. "There's no way I could be topped; was coming for your spot!" Ugh yas top me. Maybe not crucial to the album, but a sleek, stylistic little romp that breaks up the middle of the record a little and acts as a cute homage to all of her 80s pop heroes at the same time. It's great. OW!" @Stradiwhovius says it has "Fierce production. Vibes. But otherwise a bit bland." and that seemed to be the running theme with a bunch of you: @SyPOPhantic "The choruses are what ruin the song, clunky and ultimately brings it down for me." @VitaminBee "The verses are superb but the choruses are lacking something. They fall a little flat." @madgemad "The verses are... reductive. It feels good though." @daninternational "I like the elements of this but they don't quite mesh. @FresherThanYou only recognizes the standard "Was happy with the albums initial track list, didn’t need some of these trash bonus tracks!" hope you don't feel that way about the Whitney cosplay discography highlight one! @jtm says it's "Not a bad song, but again those lyrics/themes are very offputting for me.." And I'm surprised to hear @Laura Vanderbooben is even allowed in St Patrick's Cathedral "let me catwalk between the pews a bit"
@Laurence says "I like the track, but there's not a lot more I can say about it. I feel like it's not essential int he album, hence a bonus track. But could easily be another track there for it, even a bonus. So not much... The AWWW goes awf though." True. @Seventeen Days notes "She sure went hard in the paint with the quasi-religious references on this album, but they work so well in the context." @sfmartin vogues "What a jumble of ideas but I'm still living. I really enjoy the juxtaposition of the light bouncy verses with the hard edged monotone chorus." And @Untouchable Ace closes out the sermon with "Amen to that. Remember to dress your best every day." Thanks!



 

Subwaykid

Staff member
55.

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I'll Never Love Again
average: 7.19
Highest: 10 x 11 (@Laurence @Seventeen Days @Slice of Life @roborovsky @Andrew.L @FresherThanYou @madgemad @Sprockrooster @elektroxx @Alenko @UncleDeSeanAli)
Lowest: 1 x 1 (@SyPOPhantic)

@BEST FICTION yelps "(The film version of this is atrocious and scares me every single time.) " Similarly @Phonetics Boy prefers the soundtrack version "Film version on the Spotify playlist? Whew, the sabotagery!" As does @Laurence "The GP eats this film version up of course because surprise in a movie, but I rated the superior extended version. Gotta love her best ballad? Yes I said it. The bridge has me in tears the first time I heard this one I guess. Those hooo-ho-ho-hooo, I cannot. Take my soul. I remember listening to the leaks of the movie and well I knew this was one of the ones for me. I love it, yes." @Alenko touchingly comments "I can't really listen to this song anymore cause I only think of my dog that died a year ago and how I'll never love another dog like him. Gut wrenching song. Everyone was crying at the cinema."
@FresherThanYou says "This to me is a tragic love song delivered in a balls to the wall Whitney moment!" @Maki thinks it's grand "Finally, a ballad that succeeds in feeling grand. It has proper and strong build-up and the chorus has the oomph is needs. Gaga's vocals are among the very best on this album, so emotional. However, subjectively, this isn't sad enough melodically and simply isn't something that I would go back to often. I prefer the extended version, because it has more of those lovely string instruments. Really nice way to close the album. " @Seventeen Days was also feeling it "I don’t cry at many movies, but when this track came on, it was like turning on the waterworks. I still can’t listen to it without tearing up." The Whitney attributes weren't lost on y'all, for better or worse. "This Whitney-esque ballad works well for me. Definitely prefer the version without Bradley though (which is what I’m giving the 8 to). I actually enjoy him throughout the rest of the soundtrack but his vocal is jarring here. It works well in the context of the film, but not so much on its own" says @R27. Whereas @SyPOPhantic thinks "This song always feels very forced to me - trying to have her “Whitney” moment and it doesn’t quite ever get there." Alongside @jtm who says "Yes it's the finale but it's also such a pastiche of previous soundtrack ballads and goes exactly nowhere" @Sprockrooster has some tea he wants to share "Tea: this honestly should have been as big as Whitney's I Will Always Love You. A loss for music in general and I blame the trash radio of nowadays" And @sfmartin is of two minds about it "It's a very impressive ballad. She captures the spirit of all those early 90s power ballad's. Her vocal range is really on display. At times you can tell she really hear she is at the limit of her range and it takes me out of the moment." @Stradiwhovius thinks the singing is good, actually, but doesn't care "More technically good singing I dont care about," And @RJF closes us out for the night "You know what? I'll give this props. The chorus soars, she sounds incredible, and I actually like how the song itself is changed by what happens in the film; how it goes from being about Jackson never wanting to love anyone other than Ally because they'll spend the rest of their lives together, to... well. Also, that outro with the ad-libs is pure, unfiltered Gaga. Not Ally. Not something in between. It's her, and it felt like the moment she returned to herself after playing as someone else for the entire soundtrack. Gorgeous. The story about the day she filmed her performance of it in the movie is gut-wrenching too. The portion of that interview is quoted below, per Glamour:
In a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Gaga revealed that while she was on set getting ready to shoot, she received news that one of her closest friends, Sonja Durham, was nearing the end of her battle with stage IV cancer. "On that day my friend Sonja—who had been battling cancer for years—her friend called me and I could hear her moaning in the background and she said she's not doing well," Gaga said. "And I thought she was dying, so I left the set."


The pop star says she didn't even tell costar and director Bradley Cooper that she had left. "I just got in my car and started driving and I missed her by 10 minutes," she said.


Gaga shared that she laid with Sonja's son and husband, and consulted her friend's widower about whether she should return to set. "He said, 'You've gotta do what Sonja would want you to do,'" Gaga recalled. "She gave me a tragic gift that day and I took it with me to set, and I sang that song for Jackson and for her on that very same day within an hour."

When she returned to set, she said, Cooper was kind and supportive in the wake of her loss. "Bradley was so beautiful with me that day, he was so loving. He was like, 'You don't have to do it too many times, it's OK.' And, I was like, 'All I wanna do is sing, man,'" she said.

And so Gaga stepped in front of the camera and sang lyrics that had suddenly become even more poignant than they already are in the context of the film. "Wish I could, I could have said goodbye / I would have said what I wanted to, maybe even cried for you / If I knew it would be the last time / I would have broke my heart in two / Tryin' to save a part of you," she sings, per Genius.

In the interview, Gaga continued, "Life is hard, man, but we've gotta stick together. What's more important than any of this, the fame, the accolades? What's important is the process of love and kindness. I think the star of this film is human courage, bravery."





 
Black Jesus + Amen Fashion has always stood out like a sore thumb on the album, so I'm glad it's gone. I don't even hate it that much; it's just that it's so noticeable that it's a bonus track (and I hate that it was tacked in the middle of the album on some versions of it).
 
Just popping in to say that Money Honey, Hey Girl, Grigio Girls, Bad Kids, Black Jesus and Mary Jane Holland should all still be in or at least much higher than the positions they landed at.

But alas, I don't have a discostick to stand on because I didn't fucking vote.
 
she/her
I have no strong feelings about the last few eliminations, which is a good thing. My 10s remain unbothered!

Watch one of them go next.
 

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