Lady Gaga - Judas (single) + Born This Way (2CD album)

Hello fellow monsters! Mama Monster, also known as the LEGENDARY pop icon, Lady Gaga, has finally released the long awaited album - Born This Way! And yes~ She also released a single with the same title and people who are unfamiliar with music (like my youngest brother and some other guilty ones out there) thought that the album was released long ago~ Funny!!

Anyway, I finally collected my pre-order copy of this album at HMV Somerset yesterday evening after having dinner at Choa Chu Kang. Couldn't wait for the weekends to collect them because I want to get them quick! Okay~ Partially because I won't really have much time to take the photos of the album and single so I just want to clear my "To-Do list" quick.

By the way, Kaka went back to Indonesia for a short break before coming back again to continue to stay with us. This means that the house will basically be very quiet and probably very messy since Vera doesn't know how to operate the washing machine. SHAME ON HER!



Back to the topic at hand. This album was released last Monday - May 23, 2011 and it's Lady Gaga's second studio album since "The Fame". I wouldn't consider "The Fame Monster" as an album because it only has 7 tracks - that's more of an EP, no? The pre-order version at HMV comes with a copy of Judas; the single following the hit "Born This Way". Other stores have other premiums - for instance, Laser Flair (is this the correct spelling?) is giving out exclusive posters along with a purchase of the album. YES! I do my homework~


Let's take a look at the controversial single first, shall we? Juda~Juda-ah-ah~~

In case you're wondering how come this photo looks slightly tilted, it's not. When Gaga herself designed this cover (Yes~ She did it herself~), she either made the word Judas tilted or she missed out the fact that it's tilted. Oh well~ Not the best looking cover because of the color choices - in my opinion - but who cares?! It's a great song!

Just some trivia. According to what I read on the internet (forgot where though~), she apparently used her camera phone to capture the texture of the single's cover and used the IMPACT font for "Judas". I guess she took less than 15 minutes to create this single's cover but oh well...

The back of the single - the CD itself. When I first saw the single, I was like "WHAT?! One track only?!" I think this is the only single in my entire CD collection that has only one single track! What happened to the remixes? Oh well~ Since it's a free gift, I shouldn't complain too much but I think that HMV should have given this single to the customers when they first purchased it.

What's the point of giving us a single track when this track is featured in the album already? For a CD collector like myself, I'll definitely appreciate the physical copy of the single but others will be like "What the..." At least if they had given us the single earlier, we can enjoy the song first, no?

Back to the CD. Does the "Lady Gaga" font look familiar? That's the font used on the "Born This Way" single! I was slightly disappointed that this font was not used again for the album but oh well~ I think the CD looks better than the cover... Just sayin'~

A CD with a single track - what a waste of memory on the CD~ If only they gave us the single with the "Born This Way" remix, I would be so much happier!

This is what you see when you open the casing up. Well, the album promotional stuff inside obviously hints that this single is meant to be a free gift. Plus, if you see carefully, you can see the words "For Promotional Use Only. Not for Sale". At least I get something limited, no? :D Only people who pre-ordered the album from HMV will get this single - no where else!

Close up on the words on the sleeve. Love Judas! Fantastic song!!





Now - Born This Way (2CD version)

"OH MY $%&*%$!" is probably what you will shout when you wake up in the middle of the night and see this scary face looking back at you with bloody red lipstick and almost emotionless eyes. This is by far the SCARIEST album I have in my possession and honestly, I don't really dig it a lot. Well, you should see the regular CD version because that's even worse.

Sometimes, I have no idea what Gaga is thinking - especially when it comes to her album arts. She take fabulous photos in VOGUE and other magazines but she somehow just cannot score on her own album arts. There are nice ones like "Born This Way - single" but there are also very bad ones like "Judas" and this album. But this 2CD version is still considered better looking as compared to the CD only version. You'll see...

This is the back of the album and yes, that motorcycle-gaga is featured on her CD-only album art. Don't be hatin' on me but I have to say that that's the worst album art I've seen in my entire life! It's digitally imposed cheaply and you should have seen the cheap, embossed fonts on that version - cannot make it! Not to mention it's also very scary...

To me, there's a fine line between being different and being uninspired. I can't say that the album art isn't inspired (maybe the motorcycle is inspiring) but the cheap embossed font cannot be forgiven. 

Dear Mother Monster, please hire me as your art director 

so I can make your album art look better. 

Sincerely, baby monster 

who is afraid of his own mom's photos...

Still love Gaga though. :)

"So scary!! I think I need some hypnotherapy~" - Britney Spears - Scary

Enough of the criticism of the album cover. This is what you see when you open up the scary box. The Singapore/Malaysia press greets you with this card that tells you that by submitting a photo of your receipt to the distributor, you may stand a chance to be invited to the album party~ Coolness! Sent my receipt already~

And when you remove the invitation, you see a SO MUCH BETTER LOOKING GAGA! Come on! Why isn't this on the cover instead? The colors are inviting and the photo begs for a second look because of the textures and lightings. A motorcycle vs this abstract beauty? I'll definitely pick this!!

Let's look at the lyric booklet first, shall we? More photos of Gaga and most of them are like better than the cover. Okay~ I really have to stop bashing the cover but you'll know where I'm getting at, no?

This is how her lyrics are arranged - almost like a newsletter style if you asked me. The words are not really arranged properly and reading it is a little challenging but that beats not having the lyrics at all. In fact, I think the lyrics of Lady Gaga must be published because they are such marvelous pieces of art! The meanings are deep and the writing is beautiful~

Another photo of the queen printed inside this booklet. I wonder what those things wrapping her are... Looks like goo mixed in thread and caramel and peanut butter. Really disgusting looking but it's really intriguing. But I definitely don't want to be covered in those things...

Those artificial cheek bone implants make her look so unhealthy-thin! Think she is going towards the direction where she wants people to know that she is weird but then, she is embracing herself because she's "born this way". Really loud statement! By the way, am I the only one who feels that Gaga's eyes are 90% blank? Or is she doing it in purpose? 

Here's the simple looking CD with 17 ass-kicking tracks inside! I have to say that though this album is really questioning the notion of what is aesthetically pleasing, it definitely did not question what is audibly enjoyable. This album, packed with strong singles and songs, is really worth the money especially when you get the 2CD version. It's quite hard to describe how good this album is because I haven't really fully listened to it yet but so far, it's impressive. Look at the reviews out on the internet~ I do mainly packaging, not really the music :P

Oh yes~ Noticed that I did not mention that this is the deluxe version even though legally, it is? That's because Lady Gaga did not like the words "Deluxe" or "Special" or something along that line and therefore, it's not specify on the cover too! You learnt something new, yes? :D

Close up on the invitation. I hope I win something this time... :D That would be cool~

Anyway, that's all I have for Lady Gaga's "Judas" and "Born This Way (2CD)". Go get the album and support this monstrously woman! Even though her covers are by far the most aesthetically unattractive ones in recent music history (personally at least), her songs are definitely worth it! :D

You go, Mother Monster! But don't be scaring me the next time you release an album!

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My take on Lady Gaga's "Judas"

 

 Lady Gaga - Judas (from her LadyGagaVEVO page on Youtube)

She did it again, didn't she? First the meat dress, then the slightly controversial (I don't really know why it's controversial in the first place) lyrics of Born This Way and now her latest single and its promotional video - Judas is causing an uproar in the Catholic community. But again, what's new right? The churches are always opinionated, no?

Well first of all, I think that this song is perfectly fine! I mean, I love it! It's like an evolved version of "Bad Romance" meets with a more poetic and deeper lyrics - though the lyrics are part of the reason why this song is so controversial in the first place.

In case you don't really know your "history", Judas is known as the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Well, you can spot him in the photo below if you squint your eyes a little bit~

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci - Taken from Wikipedia (because it's so convenient!)

Hmmmm... A bit fail but if you squint a little bit, you can see this hand from the person counting from the left. One, two, three and hand with a knife. That's popularly known as Judas. You'll see me using "popularly" a lot because I'm basing my opinions on what others had established - not new discoveries. Yeap~ That's the person Lady Gaga's singing about.

BUT! Well, this is where my opinion comes in. If you watched the Da Vinci code or read the book, you know that this mural by the legendary artist/architect/mathematician/musician/the-list-goes-on (now seriously, who in the modern age can claim so many titles for themselves?) and so, Judas is not really seen in this painting, other than his hand and the knife - symbol of betrayal. Judas was theorized to be behind everyone else - i.e. not drawn.

Then that begs the question - isn't there supposed to be 12 people along with Jesus during this significant moment? There are 12 people in this painting, no doubt, but if Judas' hidden at the back, then who's the extra person at the table? Seated beside Jesus, as many theorists had argued, is believed to be Mary Magdalene. Well, I don't know but that the theorists and Dan Brown believed so for the sake of argument, let's assume that the person is Mary Magdalene.

I said for the sake of argument!! So don't shoot down my argument first~

Why did I bring up this painting and mentioned the 2 characters? Well, that's because in the promotional video of the song, Judas and Mary Magdalene were featured and yes, Gaga is Magdalene.

Now no wonder that angered so many people... Now you see why they are angry?

Quoting Bill Donahue, the President of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, this is what he thinks about the video/song...

"She is trying to rip off Christian idolatry to shore up her talentless, mundane and boring performances. Another ex-Catholic whose head is turned around... Is this the only way to jet up her performance? This isn't random, we are getting closer to Holy Week and Easter."

Wow~ Angry man! Well personally, why has he got to be so mean? If he is unhappy, then should just be gracious and say "Look. I disagree with what Gaga is doing because she is using my religion in an inappropriate way" but why scoop down to the level of calling Gaga "talentless, mundane and boring"?

For the record, Gaga ranks 4th on The World's Most Powerful Celebrity scale (source: Forbes.com) and I don't see how someone who is "talentless" can chart herself up so high, kicking the butts like Tiger Woods (now why is he up there?) and poor Britney Spears and Madonna (I still love y'all!).

As for the ripping of Christian idolatry... She is just using it as a metaphor to express her views on certain matter, no? At least she isn't changing history or something or challenging the truth like what the Da Vinci Code is speculated to do, right? Sometimes, I feel that modern artistes are getting a tougher time in terms of making something legendary or creative.



As a design student - or used to be design student - or going to be design student again in university - whatever - I feel that such restrictions and unhelpful criticisms form boundaries in terms of creativity. If you were told not to do this, not to do that, even though you have a brilliant idea, then where will you express your creativity and opinions?

True - sometimes, things get a little out of hand and gets labeled as "controversial" but at least it challenges what traditional people are thinking about and sheds a different light on matters, no? Isn't that what creativity is about - to challenge the existing to make people think? To express your views, feelings and opinion in a healthy way as opposed to going on a rampage and starting wars around the world?

If the terrorists were more well-behaved and channeled their negativity through music and arts, maybe the world would be such a better place... There's more than one way to skin a cat, if you get the meaning.




So here, Miss Gaga is using Judas as a metaphor of depicting probably a past love which is unhealthy to her but even so, she clings onto it. It's almost like you know that eating too much chocolate will make you fat but "you're still in love with chocolate, baby~". You get what I mean? Anyway, Gaga said that... 

"This video is not meant to be an attack on religion. It's not meant to be an attack on anyone's beliefs. I respect and love everybody's beliefs. My fans know that about me. I consider myself a strong and devoted Catholic, and a religious and spiritual person who's obsessed with religious art."

I believe you, Mother Monster! See~ She is just honestly making an attempt to be different, to be groundbreaking and apparently, I think she did it, again!



As an intelligent and modern audience, like you and me (unless you still want to label Lady Gaga as a devil, fine), we should be more open minded than resort to calling people worthless or anything just because they did something you disagreed with. You may not like it - fine. But what good will it do if you just go around airing your negative energy? Nothing will change - masterpieces will still be masterpieces whether you like it or not.

We should give these artistes the freedom of expression and encourage them - not to call them the devil's reincarnate and all sorts of funny and uninteresting names to hurt their creative energy. The world is boring without these people who break new grounds to bring us better form of entertainment so don't be killing my muses. You won't want people to walk around the streets looking like zombies with no life now, would you?

"I'm just a Holy fool, oh baby he's so cruel 

 but I'm still in love with Judas baby"

I meant the song. :) Can't wait for the album!

Sources, references and interesting reads
(because it's good to give credit to people's hard work)

MTV's interview with Gaga and director on promotional video
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663450/lady-gaga-judas.jhtml

Gaga's Views on the controversial

http://jezebel.com/5799284/lady-gaga-reveals-the-only-controversial-thing-about-judas-video

Gaga blasted by critics over the song

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/music/3565300/Lady-GaGa-blasted-by-critics-over-controversial-Judas-music-video.html

"Judas" upsetting the religious groups

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lady-gagas-judas-upsets-religious-179188

Forbes - The World's Most Powerful Celebrities

http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/22/lady-gaga-oprah-winfrey-business-entertainment-celeb-100-10_land.html

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