The Fame Monster
Lady Gaga’s 2009 add-on to her blockbuster album *The Fame* shows Mother Monster at the height of her pop cultural powers, fusing banging beats with her ever-morphing—yet always club-ready—style. The “rah rah ah-ah-ah!” rallying cry of “Bad Romance” jolts a love song dressed up in mirror-ball drag, while “Telephone” pairs Gaga with Beyoncé for a feisty broadside against overzealous suitors and the grand ballad “Speechless” pays tribute to Gaga’s piano-bar roots. This is a massive statement in a deceptively brief package.
Lady Gaga's second record, containing "Bad Romance" and "Speechless", finds her coming into her own as both a songwriter and a pop star.
Initially planned solely as a standard double-disc reissue in the wake of the blockbuster success of The Fame, Lady Gaga decided to release the new material as a separate EP called The Fame Monster in addition to the standard two-CD set, where it’s tacked onto a now standardized version of her debut.
Lady Gaga's appearance on Saturday Night Live last year was notable not only for her game-changing piano improvisation during her second performance, which showcased her stunning voice and piano skills, but also for the passing of the pop torch to her fro
Fame Monster does provide some small, if fleeting, glimpses behind the pretense that is Lady Gaga.
There's an irrepressible quality to GaGa that is given full rein in The Fame Monster. Rating: * * *