It only took how many months after Applause, 6, 7? 7 months after the lead singles video, we get a new visual from Lady Gaga, and she made up for the time missed. What she gave the world was a 7 minute (11 minute including the credits) video that chronicles the ARTPOP era ths far. What superstar has commented on a current era of their music with a video from the era? It's quite the tactic.
The video starts off with men in suits fighting and punching each other while dollar bills fly through the air. This quite obviously symbolizes those in the music business that have used her for money, and they only run away once she is broken down and of no more use. As they leave, the camera pans down, while ARTPOP plays and we see Gaga laying face down in the grass, complete with wings and a fire nearby. She stands up, revealing an arrow that has pierced through her heart. The Gaga phoenix has been resurrected. She stumbles her way to the Hearst Castle, and collapses in front of it. Two men in black pick her up and carry her inside, with Gaga being held up in a cross like formation (already a religious reference!).
As she is carried inside, we see dozens of... Interesting figures saluting her as she walks in, while Venus begins to take over as the soundtrack. She is then covered in flowers, and put into a pool, with some synchronized swimmers holding her afloat, before they submerge her body. Here, the scene cuts to Housewives stars poorly acting like they're playing instruments (seriously, the cello girl just looked stupid). I guess this is supposed to be a hallucination? It really just comes off as poor product people placement. This then awkwardly transitions to the main event G.U.Y.
There Gaga is, dressed in white with a massive head piece looking up to the sky to see Andy Cohen as Zeus, yes, Andy Choen is Zeus. There's lots of dancing, lots of water, a little more of the housewives, and relatively little sex surprising for a song thats stands for Girl Under You. One of the scenes that more directly pertains to the storyline is Gaga walking into a small room, with a man sitting at a computer playing Minecraft, with the subtitle "/gamemode ARTPOP." Similar to Bad Romance, 4 coffins in the room pop open, and of course, Michael Jackson, Ghandi, Jesus and John Lennon emerge. In a latter scene, a worker (?) takes the blood of each to make the perfect G.U.Y. Dressed in black, Gaga then creates dozens and dozens of these G.U.Y.'s and takes them to a building, perhaps her record label, and kills off the men who stole from her and replaces them with these clones, her "yes-men" per say. The video ends with these clones emerging in the thousands from Heart Castle, with a camera pan over the nearby scenery, while the credits role with MANiCURE playing.
I cut out a lot of other visuals Gaga presents in the above paragraph, such as writhing on a raft while being the girl underneath a shirtless man, her grinding and riding a man in the cloning room, and her messing around with a golden bow and arrow. Overall, the visuals presented are stunningly articulate.
The storyline is somewhat predictable, but Gaga does it in a way that is very Gaga. It tells the story she's been describing for the past few months, especially the Do What U Want video debacle. She is used by those in the industry for money, gives them what they want before she takes over and rules the world. The statement here is that she is confident that her work itself in its truest form is what will put her on top of the world again.
While I was impressed with the video, I wasn't entirely blown away. Was it worth the wait? Well, Gaga at least tried to make it just that, packing 4 songs into her film, but 7 months is just way to long of a gap for something extremely essential for any successful album.
Overall Grade: A