Just hunches…
(and I’m not really counting the singles here. She gave away the obvious songs first – these are the deep cuts and they’re awesome.)
1. Schieße – dirty dirty beats, german talking. This thing owns anything on BPM.
2. Americano – super different dance beat mariachi. Lots of Spanish melodic ideas and harmony in 3rds. LOVE THIS TRACK
3. Bad Kids – not as much the song as the words to this one. Not sure why – maybe I have a soft spot for the people she describes.
4. Born This Way (Jost et. al remix) – props for remixing this song with different chords. I would have trouble doing that without doing a Schenkerian analysis.
5. Bloody Mary – weird “medium” tempo groove, and possibly more blasphemous than Judas. A+ for pushing the boundaries here.
6. Schieße (DJ white shadow remix) 9 minutes of pure euro trance anthem, with a SICK halftime section. A little light on the wubs however.
7. Marry the Night – this track makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a training montage in an 80’s movie. It also sounds like a musical’s opener.
8. Judas (DJ White Shadow remix). WUBWUBWUB FINALLY
Overall, this album is like an uber-pop version of Imogen Heap’s Ellipse.
Once you look past the thick and exquisite production layer, you get this very personal and conceptual comparison of the Lady’s love life with the tragedies commonly presented in Christian mythology. I use the word mythology here because these images are used in the songs for comparative purposes, not to sing about the religion itself.
Overall score: A- for the basic disc, A with the remixes.
I can’t wait to hear this album…
WILL KUHN 