Critic of Music

Although the planned release was August 19th, in order to combat a 12 second leak, Gaga and her label shipped Applause to United States radio less than an hour ago. Applause shall also hit US iTunes tonight, according to Gaga's Twitter. The song, in essence, is everything we have to come to expect from Gaga: sticky, gooey, pop gold.

The song starts off with some singular Electronic notes like an 8-Bit Nintendo, before Gaga shows off her quivering lower register and a drum beat crashes in. There's some heavy auto-tune here, for Gaga at least, Kesha would scoff if we compared the amount to her. But then, the chorus kicks in. The claps, the production, the harmonies, it's everything we could've imagined ARTPOP would sound like. If you're not tapping along at any point during the chorus, check your pulse and send your self to your local ER. Soon following, the piano led bridge moves in with Gaga showing off, surprisingly, her falsetto(!) She then sends the song into the atmosphere with some standard high notes.

Lyrically, the verses are pretty weak sadly. Gaga has some interesting concepts and ideas that are not fully understood with her choice of lyrics. Comparatively, the chorus and bridge aren't genius nor terrible, its pretty standard pop lyricism. However, where the song really shines is the production. Zedd has out done himself this time, after sending Clarity into the US top 10 this week, Zedd has managed to produce another EDM, radio friendly hit. While this isn't something that will have Ellie Goulding clutching her EDM tiara over (lets face it, this song is still pretty pop), it's hard to deny that this song is far more club ready than anything else on Pop radio at the moment.

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

Vocal Range: B2 - A5 - F#6
Vocal Type: Light-Lyric Soprano (3 octaves, 3 notes)
Vocal Rating: B+
Recommended Listenings: With Love, Wrecking Ball, Must Be Love (Live)

Positives: A bright, and light feminine tone. Ability to sing complex melismas and sustain notes for extended periods of time. A light rolling vibrato can be found from F3 - _. Capable of properly executed vocal drives. Does well musically with softer, legato passages.

A decent lower register with dark low notes that are achieved with ease and support down to Eb3. Though this is the weakest part of her voice, it is a relatively strong one for a soprano like Grimmie.

As she ascends, she gains more of a nasally, metallic twang, but this effect has been lessening as of late. Piercing, resonant belts that have become more evenly mixed over time (see Wrecking Ball, Find Me). The area from B4 - E5 is the true highlight of Grimmie's voice, demonstrating forward placement, an open sound, and great projection. She brings down her head voice to create a solid mixed voice around D5, being slightly heady with a wide vibrato that projects easily through even the heaviest instrumentation.

Beautiful, warm head voice, accompanied by a clean falsetto in the upper registers.

Negatives: A nasally twang accompanies her voice due to unconventional vocal placement (see the final belt of Deception). Televised performances are often not on par with her other performances. Improvised runs may sound labored and be messy. Guilty of being overzealous with her melismas and upper belts. Minor intonation issues, mostly in the upper register; this register is also prone to thinning above E5. Falsetto notes become thin and strained in the 6th octave.

The new single from current Pop Queen Katy Perry leaked early this week, and has been making its rounds around the internet. Whether or not its a gem like E.T. or trash like Part of Me, it will likely go to No.1 anyways. But is it good or bad? Read on to find out!

A single piano chord struts its way throughout the first verse, will Katy spews out some simple and generic lyrics. Right off the bat it sounds like Sara Bareilles' Brave, but less intellectually stimulating at that. Once the chorus kicks in, nothing changes really, except for some bigger drum beats and a guitar. The last chorus brings some power notes, and more instruments which was desperately needed.

Overall, it's disappointing, considering all the hype that lead up to it. This was supposed to be a song that re-defined Katy, a new era was to begin that would stomp out the inferno that was Teenage Dream. Instead, we got a fairly basic, standard Katy track. Sure it's catchy, but that doesn't mean it's not boring or unoriginal. One should be expecting much more from the 2nd single, and the rest of Prism, which isn't what her fans she be left thinking.

Vocals: B-
Lyrics: D+
Instrumentation/Production: C-
Overall: C-

Check it out here.

Edit: After a few more spins, this song is Brave. Nearly identical lyrics and piano chords? More points off.

It finally happened, a legitimate ARTPOP song leaked. Her voice is there, the production is there, there is no doubt: it is Gaga.


There is a lot of speculation flying around the internet about what this song is called, and/or what its about. The obvious title choice would be Burqa, since she has already confirmed its a track on ARTPOP, and she mentions a burqa multiple times through out the track. Other titles include Aura or a different spelling of a similar pronunciation, arwah. Arwah is an Islamic word, that could be translated as 'Spirit,' or 'More gracious.'

The track itself is a roller coaster ride in every sense of the word. It is written in a ABCBDC form, where every letter is incredibly different from its neighbors. The first section starts off with an acoustic guitar and drum beat, before Gaga speaks of killing her female friend and stuffing her in the trunk of her car (This alone has caused a sea of speculation about a Telephone sequel, since Gaga and Beyonce wear burqas at the end of the music video). The best way to describe this section would be to say it's like a Lana Del Rey cover of Americano.

Soon after the creepy laughs, the arabic production segways into an EDM production that makes Heavy Metal Lover look like Eh Eh. This section is pretty weak lyrically, but it's brief thankfully, which soon transitions into the standard golden pop chorus we've come to expect from Gaga. Soaring vocals, and a fairly restrained production make this highly experimental track somewhat radio-friendly. The Calvin Harris and Zedd duo soon return to the dark electronic verse, which is lyrically more interesting than the blank concepts prepared in the first. The bridge is very weak, a robotic voice similar to the one in the previously mentioned Heavy Metal Lover only sputters 4 words: "Dance. Sex. Art. Pop." Finally, the song returns to the glorious chorus before closing with a weak production line.

There is a lot to take in from this song, its more like 4 songs put into one, which lead to some very unfavorable reviews upon its release. So, I'm going to break it down part by part.

The A Section: "I killed my poor friend....aura-a-a-a"
Lyrics: B-
Vocals: B-
Production: B-

The B Section: "Im not a wandering slave...more than enough"
Lyrics: D+
Vocals: B
Production: A+

The C Section: "Do you want to see me naked.... behind the aura"
Lyrics: A-
Vocals: A-
Production: B+

The B Section #2:  "Enigma popstar... pleasure and toil"
Lyrics: B
Vocals: B
Production: A+

The D Section: "Dance... Pop"
Lyrics: F
Vocals: F
Production: C-

The C Section #2: "Do you want to see me naked.... ARTPOP"
Lyrics: A-
Vocals: A-
Production: A

With all of that out there, I do feel very favorable towards Burqa. An important thing to remember is that this is a demo, a rough, unmastered idea thats rough around the edges. And by that standard, Burqa is light years ahead of that concept. The mastered edition will hopefully be much cleaner and have some filled concepts, but if radio does actually pick up a song like this: we might witness a pop revolution.

Overall: B+
Lyrics: B-
Vocals: B
Production: A+