Rating
1.5

More than a year ago, a phenomenon not unlike that of a massive asteroid hit the planet when Lady Gaga released her debut album, The Fame, with compositions like “Poker Face” making Mozart green with envy. With poetry such as “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick,” fans of Edgar Allan Poe received a modern-day muse and a style that lives up to her transgender-stripper name.

Now (s)he released a sequel called The Fame Monster, beginning with “Bad Romance,” which can only be described as special. I’ve listened to this song about 10 times and came away with a different opinion of it each time. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I lay in a corner in the fetal position contemplating life. But say what you want, the (wo)man can make an entrance.

It’s such a shame the rest of the album (except one song) is less memorable than my first birthday. Even “Telephone,” featuring Beyonce, doesn’t leave any impact whatsoever because their voices are so similar that a duet is unnecessary.

With that in mind, the song “Speechless” is fascinating in its near pop perfection. So it begs the question: How can somebody with such a brilliant performance put out such mediocre work?

The thing about The Fame Monster is it’s only a little longer than an EP and yet is such a chore to get through.