On November 6th, 2013, Lady Gaga released her third full studio album ARTPOP. The record served as a follow-up to her debut, The Fame (2008), and sophomore effort Born This Way (2011), both of which saw enormous commercial success almost immediately. In April 2012, Gaga embarked on her headlining “Born This Way Ball” that was ultimately cut short when a serious hip injury forced her to cancel the tour’s remaining dates.
During the six months she required to heal from surgery, Gaga and her team studied literature and fine art with the objective of intertwining the two with her music. Artworks like Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, a piece often referenced throughout ARTPOP, can be seen in the background.
The lead single “Applause” received consistent radio play and was popular with critics, attributing this to its catchy chorus, something Gaga is well-known for…but it certainly was no “Bad Romance” or “Poker Face” and its subject matter instead dealt with the intricacies of fame and being perceived in the public eye. Although its second single, “Do What U Want”, was commercially successful at first, soon after came much controversy as it featured then-disgraced artist and now-convicted child sex abuser R. Kelly. The song, which no longer exists on the record unless it’s an old reupload to social media, was pulled by Gaga in 2019 after the release of the Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly. In the track, Gaga insists to critics and the media that her thoughts and feelings are her own, and they can never take that, no matter what they try to get her to do. At the original time of the single’s release, she said, “[Kelly and I have both] sometimes had very untrue things written about us, so in a way [the single] was a bond between us”. Oof. Not to mention the questionable ways Gaga and her team went about promoting the release including an AMAs performance where Gaga and Kelly imitate Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton in the oval office and an eventually scrapped music video directed by Terry Richardson which showed a “Dr. Kelly hosting a softcore orgy with Gaga’s anesthetized body, a nurse straddling the passed-out pop star as she dances a lobster next to Gaga’s sheet-covered breasts.” Double oof.
Something I noticed when reading reviews of the record is that although all outlets could agree that this was a failed effort on her part, they all claimed several different tracks as its only good ones. Pitchfork praised the piano ballad “Dope” for its powerful vulnerability. The Guardian wrote that “‘Swine’ remains a landmark collage of a song…’Swine’ is ARTPOP’s wow-factor centerpiece, if not its greatest hit,” and compared “Fashion!” to something by David Bowie, stating that the track is “ARTPOP’s only real moment of genuine artistic abandon.” Rolling Stone actually claimed the only tracks capable of redeeming the album were “Do What U Want” and “Gypsy”.
Despite its complicated history, the album has since become a fan-favorite and somewhat of a cult-classic. In my opinion, some of Gaga’s best tracks and vocal performances reside on this record. Its epic intro “Aura” incorporates mariachi, western guitar, and Middle Eastern influences. The eighties-inspired synth-pop/glam rock song “Venus” samples «Rocket Number 9” by Sun Ra; In its now iconic bridge, Gaga calls out the names of many other gods and planets, where she rhymes “Uranus” with “my ass is famous.” “G.U.Y.” (which stands for Girl Under You) is sexy and explores gender roles, sexual submission, and dominance over an industrial house beat. In the futuristic sounding “Sexxx Dreams”, she describes her late-night fantasies and proposes a hook-up to someone whose boyfriend is gone for the weekend. Finally, “Mary Jane Holland” is a playful ode to the joys brought by smoking weed.
Although the record was not received well initially, what matters is its longevity and impact, as good things take time. As Gaga declared in her title track: “My ARTPOP could mean anything.”