by Mr Moth
Lady Gaga – Applause
This is more like it. After the frankly lacklustre Born This Way (the singles were… OK, but frustratingly short of the brilliance The Fame/Monster threw out with unthinking abandon, and the album tracks were terrible), this first shot from Artpop promises much.
Supposedly rush-released following leaks – at which point Gaga declared a POP EMERGENCY, and who are we to argue? – Applause barrels into the room and bashes you with hooks until you beg for mercy and no more hookings, please. Your eyes hurt from the hooks. Handclaps, crowd noise, a bit where is goes quiet then comes back in… textbook. Magic. And isn’t it nice to have a pop star who really loves pop and wants to interrogate it? Who lives an examined megastar life? The self-awareness, the wit, the flamboyance and a load of cracking tunes make Gaga the most important pop star on the planet right now, and that’s before I get to the video.
MostlyFilm 