Critic of Music

Well. Congratulations Avril. You've managed to give the public one of the most desperate "Cry for attention" music videos ever. This makes Not Myself Tonight look like the Do What U Want video (IE, like it never happened). The track is almost as pitiful as Avril Lavigne's sales and the video will do nothing to help that. At all.

First off the track is pitiful with it's horribly disguised sexual innuendos and cutsie metaphor for something just… Odd.. Sorry Avril but the kitty you're talking about ain't that pretty. Poor breakdown post chorus, poor lyrics, poor vocals, poor production. The video is equally as racist as the "Kawaii" track, as Avril tries to envelop herself in Japanese culture, and once more, she fails.

I guess I should bring myself to say something nice about this… I like the guitar. Gross, even giving this one compliment makes me want to bash my head into this keyboard for even thinking it.

Stick to Rock N' Roll Avril. Please.

Watch here at your own risk.

Overall: F

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

Time and time again, P!nk has proven herself to be the most consistent and phenomenal awards show performer since… well ever. But her performance last night did not give the same 'WOW' factor as her past performances of Glitter in the Air and Try.

Now don't get upset, her performance was still good, maybe great, but when we're talking about P!nk, good doesn't cut it. If this was the Grammy's, it would've been forgettable, but because she only had to face Indina Menzel (who slaughtered Let It Go by rushing through it and belted a god awful final note), the performance stood out. Nothing was truly exceptional, but vice versa nothing was terrible. It was solid, which is boring.



Now, I'm glad she didn't use her acrobatics again, because people would complain about how she's covering past territory, but more could have been utilized here (acrobatics may even be justified for this ballad). I'll let you slide on this P!nk, but don't ever give a B-list performance again.

Overall: B+

Lea Michele's debut album already has far more battle wounds to it than almost any other album imaginable. Her boyfriend, Corey Monteith passed away this past July, and the album's tracks already bare the scars Lea had to endure.

Cannonball: The album's drum lead lead single plays it very safe, it's in the same ballpark as Roar in terms of empowerment and sound. Except Cannonball doesn't offer any powerful roaring notes, something one would expect from Glee's powerhouse vocalist. While Lea sounds liberated, the song doesn't do anything to further that emotion. B-

On My Way: The 2nd title track doesn't bare any real correlation to Monteith ("I should stay away from you tonight"), and doesn't sound like it either. The production packs a lot into the 3 and a half minute track, Wrecking Ball's scarce synth plucks, drums, acoustic and electric guitars, and loaded with synths in the chorus. It seems very Top 40 ready, and is a great listen, but it's hard to picture someone like Demi Lovato not singing this song and being much more effective with it. B+

Burn With You: I've been ignoring most of the lyrics for the previous tracks because I believed they would get better, but this song brings mixed results lyrically. Lea first states "Even angels have their demons," which is an over done lyrical line. But then she proclaims: "But I don't wanna go to heaven / If you're going to hell / I will burn with you," which is pretty daring lyrically (and thematically). Is this song about Monteith? Does she believe he's going to Hell? One has to appreciate the risk she took here, but also slightly confused or concerned with it as well. B

Battlefield: Sia Furler wrote the track specifically for Lea after Monteith's death, but it takes place in a very present tense which is off putting. "Peace will come when one of us puts down the gun," maybe their relationship wasn't as perfect as everyone thought it was. The track doesn't do much sadly, no crescendos, in fact it's even a bit pointless. C-

You're Mine: First thought: Album filler. Second thought: She sounds great. C-

Thousand Needles: Yes Lea! You finally sound like you're in pain! Hearing the growls and only relying on your voice to propel the song is exactly what you should've been doing all along! She hasn't been doing much with her soaring soprano pipes for most of the album, and now that she's finally using them, it's pretty darn exciting. And even better, the song itself isn't half bad. A-

Louder: The song sounds like Kesha's idea of a ballad, but Lea's idea as a party song. It fits both labels effectively. A standard Pop "Oh-oh" hook, but some pretty dark lyrics. And the production is not only empowering, but genuinely fun and well-intentioned. And at the end, we get actually get an upper belt that we've been waiting for! Instant stand-out. A-

Cue The Rain: "We would've died for us." What? She's talking about driving down a road, and wanting it to rain like normal, but of course she's thinking about a past lover. The song finally finds it's forte in the 2nd chorus, Lea, the production and the lyrics all finally seem to agree on what the song should convey. Lea throws in some more tasty growls, and is finally screaming for the rain. B+

Don't Let Go: It's about a relationship, and it's not sad! Lea sounds hopeful, and happy, which is some much needed relief from most of the albums somewhat morbid tendencies. You can picture Lea smiling and jumping up and down on her bed with someone new, which is an adorable sight for a cute song. B+

Empty Handed: It's another love song, and while it's not happy, it's not morbid either. She still sounds hopeful, but less battered and bruised. It sinks into the battlefield that is the rest of the album though. B-

If You Say So: The final song that is actually confirmed to be about Monteith, that takes place "seven whole days" after Corey "lost his fight." It's the first song that makes your gut turn a little bit, Lea really gets raw and personal, and lets everyone peer into how hard Corey's death really was on her. It might not be too relatable because of how directly it relates to Lea, but you will still feel something in the end. Great way to end the album. A

Overall, it's a pretty solid debut from an already well established pop star. It does have it's faults, Lea and the songs arrangements don't always seem to agree with what should be done, Lea actually undersings quite a lot on this album, and the morbid tendency of the album can become a bit overwhelming in the albums middle half. But it has its fun moments, and the necessary sad ones, which cannot be overlooked. This album sets up a promising future for Miss Michele.

Lyrics:C+
Vocals: B+
Production: B
Overall: B