The Fame by Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga’s single, “Just Dance,” was incredibly misleading. because I was fully expecting to have to sit down and grind my teeth through a generic and boring pop/dance album, similar to the sound of the aforementioned single. I was wrong. Not to say that her debut album, The Fame, is a musical masterpiece, but it is, in fact, very pleasant music.

By now, you’ve probably all had too much to drink at some bar and got out on the dance floor to the opening track, “Just Dance” – it’s perfect late-night club fodder, and it’ll feel a bit odd listening to these rhythms anywhere else.

The following track, “Love Game,” holds more of a hip-hop beat, meaning it’ll do better to make it’s way out of the clubs and into the real world – be careful of it’s ridiculously catchy chorus line that’ll stick in your head for ages.

In “Paparazzi,” the former stripper, turned singer, takes a surprisingly intelligent look at the dynamics of a strange relationship, talking about trying to win someone over so much that you end up being like a paparazzi photographer to them, "following them until they love you."

“Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)” is a slower tune, with a bit of a reggae vibe to it, lamenting the feeling at the end of a relationship, looking back, when there’s nothing left to do or say. Lady Gaga definitely looks back with a good melody!

“Poker Face,” “Boys Boys Boys” and “Money Honey” go back to the club sound that we heard at the beginning of the album, while the fame evokes an early Madonna-Material Girl persona.

The album then takes a much mellower turn, with “Brown Eyes,” a ballad that Lady Gaga manages to pull off with sparse accompaniment, compared to the loud sound of all the other songs. A slow song was needed on the record and this is the best one she could have chosen.

The album’s enjoyable all round and definitely has the right vibe for the upcoming summer. I’m just hoping that Lady Gaga won’t go down the same path as quasi-dance acts like the Venga Boys, whom we all liked to jam to in the beginning and now cringe when we think about, but if she follows up this album with a similar one, she’ll defintely avoid being a blip on the pop culture radar.