Unpopular opinion: Born This Way

[vitoburrrito 607]

On 10/23/2023 at 3:41 PM, Lucas said:

Fernando Garibay's remix of Fashion Of His Love is better than the original version and truly underrated

This is a recent revelation that I've had as well. I initially liked how the original instrumental is v Whitney Houston, but then I couldn't help but compare the song to I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Meanwhile, the remix feels very 2012-2013 (in a good way) and feels less like a wannabe Whitney moment. I do wish he had left the key change and vocal runs in the remix though.  

[Cello 51,195]

I didn't like the album when it was released, only MTN. It lacked the sleeker production on TF/M. I can appreciate most of the songs now though. 

[Smother Em Eh 6,869]

You and I & TEOG are overrated. YNI is a little too repetitive and TEOG is too long I feel

Electric Chapel is extremely underrated and one of her best songs

The Queen’s intro AND the guitar outro is one of the best things in her entire discography for sure. 

Judas is one of the best pop/ house songs 

Marry The Night could have been as big as PF & BR. Those church bells in beginning and that outdo slay careers! 

[Gorehound 2,645]

 

- Only just over half of the album is good. But what is good is really good.

- Judas is one of the best songs of her discography. One of the most imaginative and exciting and one of her best choruses.

- The production is the main thing that lets this album down. There are good moments, but overall I find the songs have a LQ demo feel to them. The beats and bass are quite flat, and the distortion is overused, and the vocal production doesn’t compliment Gaga’s vocals. E.g. the high notes in the choruses of Marry the Night and Hair (I’m gonna marry, and, I’ve had enough) are heavily distorted and compressed and it doesn’t allow the vocals to properly sore like they should. It’s a very unnecessary and irritating creative decision.

- I know the grungy distortion is the aesthetic they were going for, almost The Prodigy-esque, but they could have easily kept that element whilst also giving the music a cleaner, crisper and more expensive feel. Many of the songs sound tacky.

- The lyrical content is very corny and immature at times (Hair, Bad Kids, Black Jesus).

- Heavy Metal Lover is the secret star of the show for me and glowing deep club anthem, with a stunning hypnotic chorus and great use of distortion, vocal effects and atmospherics. I wish a lot more of the album had gone in this direction. (It’s also one of the very few Gaga song my music snob friends like, so that’s saying something.)

- The middle section of the album really drops in quality and tone and kinda spoils the album overall (Bad Kids, Black Jesus, Fashion of his Love, Highway Unicorn), then picks right back up with Heavy Metal Lover.

- You & I doesn’t belong on the album and should have been a deluxe bonus track. It totally breaks tone. Also it’s instrumental is kinda ugly.

- The album would’ve benefitted from incorporating Rave genres imo. Such as Breakbeat, Dub, Melodic Techno, Etherial and Garage, (whilst still keeping it Pop). The overall vibe of the album would’ve really suited them and would’ve given the album more diversity. Maybe getting actual rave producers involved would’ve helped the instrumentals. Their beats, basses and imaginative effects are done on a  way higher quality than on this album. (Tho there are elements of breakbeat in Scheiße, and techno and etherial in other songs but only slightly).

- Whoever played the Sax on Hair and TEOG did a terrible job. It sounds very amateur and clumsy.

- Never understood the hype over the Queen. It’s a very mediocre song imo.

- Government Hooker is that B*tch.

 

[Anderson123 33,068]

7 minutes ago, Gorehound said:

- Whoever played the Sax on Hair and TEOG did a terrible job. It sounds very amateur and clumsy.

9 minutes ago, Gorehound said:

- You & I doesn’t belong on the album and should have been a deluxe bonus track. It totally breaks tone. Also it’s instrumental is kinda ugly.

It's a rock influenced album, of course it belongs there. In fact I think it should've been earlier on the tracklist. As much as I love Born This Way it is EXHAUSTING to listen to it from start to finish because its upbeat song after upbeat song. Bloody Mary is probably the slowest song we get after 7 fast songs, then again til The Queen and You and I.

[Gorehound 2,645]

2 minutes ago, Anderson123 said:

It's a rock influenced album, of course it belongs there. In fact I think it should've been earlier on the tracklist. As much as I love Born This Way it is EXHAUSTING to listen to it from start to finish because its upbeat song after upbeat song. Bloody Mary is probably the slowest song we get after 7 fast songs, then again til The Queen and You and I.

 

Rock isn't just Rock. It has multiple genres like all other kinds of music. You n I is country rock, the rest that features on the album is a stylisation of Glam, so yes it is very out of place imo but hey ho.

Also I'm British. We typically don't have a taste for American country rock much.

[Miichael 1,147]

Hair, BJAF and Bad Kids are some of the greatest songs of her career

[Ophelia 3,895]

BTW is the only all killer no filler album in her discog and its production is perfect as it is