Was ARTPOP rushed?

[Smother Em Eh 7,130]

51 minutes ago, gagzus said:

The long answer is; It was made between March 2012 until September/October(?) 2013 so no it wasn't rushed at all. The songs are all different, the production is on point, the mastering is some of her best and the amount of vocal layers in each song that was in-detail recorded and mastered is astounding. The most rushed songs were Venus & J&D we know that for sure sine they were two of the last recorded songs and the longest recorded one was the title track as well as G.U.Y. and Sex Dreams i believe, if it was rushed she'd have made 12-13 almost identical songs with a LOT of filler tracks. Her most rushed albums are The Fame & Joanne but even that's not noticeable.

So the short answer is; No, it's not.

Ok, yes maybe it wasn’t “rushed” after all but Aura does sound quite messy. Don’t you agree? 

[Smother Em Eh 7,130]

3 minutes ago, Benji said:

They spent too long on the album.

You can hear in the demos that there were great ideas there but they spent so long on them that they cut out what made the songs interesting.  The finished album isn’t bad but it just sounds flat, dull and lacklustre to me bar a few songs.

Yeah I would say they definitely spent way too long on it. They should’ve kept what made the songs interesting. And some songs on AP sound messy like just listen to Aura. It sounds like a 5 year old produced it. 

[gagzus 15,892]

19 minutes ago, JosephH said:

Ok, yes maybe it wasn’t “rushed” after all but Aura does sound quite messy. Don’t you agree? 

no, because it's a dubstep and hardstyle song maybe you're just not used to the sound of it it's organised chaos

[Anderson123 38,379]

No, it's the complete opposite. ARTPOP is actually the Gaga album that took the longest to be made and I think they changed their minds like 1000 times before really getting to the final tracklist. I'm not complaining on what the music sounds like because I love it and I don't hear anything that'd make it sound "unfinished".

The Fame Monster was rushed, Joanne was written and recorded in 6 months, this does not make an album be bad at all.

[elijahfan 26,228]

Duh...

Most of ARTPOP was basically her listening to her friends' pre-existing instrumentals and putting lyrics on top while being high.

Don't get me wrong, I love this album, I love Gaga and I think she's one of the few living geniuses of our time, but I'm not sure it was a particularly great creative time for her, she's hopefully in a much better place now. This album is just totally disjointed and lacks the unity and weight of its predecessors. Not to mention there was absolutely no sonic experimentation on it, it was just recycled EDM and sounds that were already on the radio. It feels like an unimportant record, and in the long run I don't think any song on it will be particularly remembered or even performed in later tours.

Then again, it's hard to follow the trinity of The Fame - TFM - BTW. From any other pop artist, I would've called ARTPOP a pure masterpiece, but we know what our girl is capable of, so anytime she doesn't break new grounds, it feels like a disappointment.

[elijahfan 26,228]

8 minutes ago, Alan123 said:

No, it's the complete opposite. ARTPOP is actually the Gaga album that took the longest to be made and I think they changed their minds like 1000 times before really getting to the final tracklist. I'm not complaining on what the music sounds like because I love it and I don't hear anything that'd make it sound "unfinished".

The Fame Monster was rushed, Joanne was written and recorded in 6 months, this does not make an album be bad at all.

Exactly, I think you have a great point: the important thing is to actually have a direction, and ARTPOP's problem is that it didn't have any.

I keep hearing people on here complaining about the LG5 album that was scrapped, but the last thing we needed as a follow up to ARTPOP was an ARTPOP 2.0. Too many albums today are pointless collections of disjointed songs that go all over the place, and I'm really not convinced this is what great records are made of. I'm sure many Little Monsters would be more than happy with that, but I'm actually expecting more from my girl.

[imnotyourbabe10 6,100]

It sometimes seems like AP gets that reputation for feeling rushed because of its experimental, vibrant and radically different Gaga take.  It's an awesome project with great ideas, visuals, etc.  Just wish the the general public was receptive to "pop sucking the tits of art." lol

I could be completely wrong, though!

[Quasi 10,923]

1 hour ago, JosephH said:

Yeah I would say they definitely spent way too long on it. They should’ve kept what made the songs interesting. And some songs on AP sound messy like just listen to Aura. It sounds like a 5 year old produced it. 

[CyanLights 15,576]

I doubt it, but who knows what actually happened. Everyone suspects there was an Original ARTPOP that got scrapped. I wouldn't be shocked if this was the case, since Gaga wrote and recored a couple of songs in like september. Like Venus was recorded a couple of weeks prior to release if I remember correctly. So if this was the case, some songs could have been somewhat last minute. Others (like Sex Dreams and GUY) were probably around since the start. 

[FATCAT 60,044]

2 hours ago, Chris Evans said:

yeah I remember when the deadline came around to submitting the songs everyone was exhausted- probably had to do with mixing. Unlike Joanne where she was almost done by the time PI was released

She posted a instagram pic that had a poster of finished/unfinished songs like a week before the release. It was like 5-6 songs that had to be finished. That being said, I don't think the album sounds rushed. If anything, they held on to it for too long. Should have done 2 EP's, one in 2012 and another in 2013, with the second half being a full "LP" treatment, like a re-release but in full.

[RAMROD 109,564]

It is the opposite imho, too much back and forth to the recording studio and over layerin shiz.

Some of the songs would have sounds better when it got a little raw. Obvious example is Aura since we got the demo version which sounds better than the final version. And then Sexxx Dreams, too. Which the Swine Fest version sounds better.

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Well a few reasons tell me yes...

1) Gaga didn't do as many organic productions on the album and recycled a lot of instrumentals (Donatella, Mary Jane Holland, Aura, etc)

2) The concept had no meaning...literally and everytime Gaga was asked what it was about...she would ramble for 10 minutes until she couldn't remember what the question was even about (Infamous "long pause" interview)

3) The singles that were originally planned were changed last minute and rushed Gaga into last minute concept performances (X Factor Venus/DWUW performance and cancelled Telephone continuation )

[Defmix100 6,374]

9 hours ago, gagzus said:

y'all do realise that 98% of the album is ACTUALLY not overproduced though right like in technical standards and not just your personal opinions right? yes you have your opinions on elements you wish weren't there etc but it isn't a fact. Venus and the final version of Sex Dreams are the only actually overproduced songs due to the minor detail of excessive vocal layering and vox effects (especially Venus) and that's it. No song has a forced style by a producer, nothing is excessively edited or quantised, there's not an excessive amount of reverb or stems overpowering other stems really and the mastering between the channels made sure you got the feel of every element (thank you Dave Russell he doesn't get enough credit) 

The best two examples of actual overproduction in her discography are probably surprising to people so lemme put them in a spoiler to avoid arguments.

 

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Boys Boys Boys and You & I.

BBB because it has overpowering stems, especially the drums, vox effects in the chorus are done not amazingly and the mastering isnt done correctly so it makes it sound harsh.

Y&I because Mutt Lange is NOTORIOUS for restricting sounds in his production, yes the layering is done well but his interference in the style definitely classifies it officially as being overproduced. The song should've been a Jazz style song imo not a country rock song.

 

The only other thing I would say is the Donatella chorus where she's singing 2 different lines over one another, they should have just chosen one in the end, but the mixing and mastering of ARTPOP is her best sounding album imo, especially vs BTW

[Defmix100 6,374]

7 hours ago, TimisaMonster said:

Well a few reasons tell me yes...

1) Gaga didn't do as many organic productions on the album and recycled a lot of instrumentals (Donatella, Mary Jane Holland, Aura, etc)

2) The concept had no meaning...literally and everytime Gaga was asked what it was about...she would ramble for 10 minutes until she couldn't remember what the question was even about (Infamous "long pause" interview)

3) The singles that were originally planned were changed last minute and rushed Gaga into last minute concept performances (X Factor Venus/DWUW performance and cancelled Telephone continuation )

wasn't it proven that the Mary Jane Holland instrumental wasn't recycled? It was made for ARTPOP but also used in that remix

[aaronyoji 2,054]

no if anything, its over edited. when u hear how wild and creative the burqa edit we now have is, its clear she had a lot of ideas that needed to be let free. post-her hip injury you can tell her label really wanted to crack down and play it safe to win back fans, and/or general public affection and didn't let her execute her own ideas.