"G.U.Y." (which stands for "Girl Under You") is one of my three favorite tracks on the album (the other two being "Venus" and "Mary Jane Holland"). It begins with the spoken introduction: "Greetings, Himeros, god of sexual desire, son of Aphrodite. Lay back, and feast as this audio guides you through new and exciting positions." It is kind of a misleading introduction because the song does not really guide its listeners through "new and exciting positions" (essentially just one), but it works really well coming directly after "Venus" because Venus and Aphrodite are the same goddess, so it's as if "G.U.Y." is the offspring of "Venus." The song is heavy with electronic energy with a melody that reminds me a great deal of late 90s, early 2000s Britney. The main instrumental hook sounds very much like the "Judas, Juda-a-a, Judas, Juda-a-a…" hook from Born This Way's "Judas." Lyrically, the song is about being in control in the bedroom even when you prefer being underneath your partner. I love the song because much like Himeros (the god of sexual desire who was a bit androgynous), the song is a bit of a gender-bender. So many people tend to think of the one on top during sexual intercourse being the male, while the one on the bottom is the female, which is one reason why I have seen and heard so much homophobia display a double-standard of persecuting the guy who enjoys being at the receiving end of anal sex with much more severity than the guy who enjoys being at the giving end. This song is saying that a guy can be a girl and vice-versa; it is attempting to blur the lines that make up the picture that is sexual gender conformity. I find it to be a very LGBT-friendly song because of that message. Regardless of sex, one can be both the girl under you and the guy at the same time because just because he or she is a bottom does not mean that he or she is weak and submissive.
"Sexxx Dreams" (ridiculously titled "X Dreams" on the edited version of the album) is a disco-like track, fast-paced and high-pitched with two different personalities at work, one who is addressing her lover with an apology because she had a sex dream about someone else and one who is addressing the person about whom she had the sex dream, essentially recounting how much she enjoyed it. It's a fun song and kind of seems like a "Poker Face" part two in some respects because lyrically, The Fame's "Poker Face" has a somewhat similar story to it, as the speaker is pretending to be sexually aroused by someone with whom she is having sexual intercourse when, in reality, her mind is on someone different. The fifth track is "Jewels N' Drugs," and I am quite honestly not going to be spend very much time discussing this track because not only is it the worst track on the album, it is one of the worst (it's difficult to say the worst because of nightmares such as "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe" and "Cake Like Lady Gaga") tracks that she has ever recorded, an opinion which I admit to at least partially holding because I am not a hip-hop fan. The song features T.I., Too $hort, and Twista and is a mess of rapping and Gaga's sassy vocals ("Don't want your jewels; I want your drugs…") over a gangsta beat and is a song that essentially celebrates drug-dealing. The bottom line is that I respect Gaga as an artist and, therefore, probably shouldn't say something so potentially harsh, but I wish that she would leave rap and hip-hop to others. "MANiCURE" is a song that I initially hated but warmed up to a little bit. It is still one of the low points on the album mainly because lyrically and melodically, it does little that is new and innovative. The title is capitalized the way that it is because there are a number of ways to read it. It could be "manicure," but it could also be "man I cure" or "man cure." I do think that there is a message to the fast, electro-rock song (which reminds me of oldies like "Vanity" and "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich"). When we think of a manicure, we think of color being added to nails, nails being polished, nails being fixed after being broken, etc. Essentially, something is fixed and made pretty, and I think that the song is referring to sex, like a manicure, as a luxury that can be therapeutic. It just doesn't do a whole lot for me, though, and, like I said, is a weak spot on the album.
"Do What U Want" features R. Kelly (whom I could do without) and is officially the album's second single. It is a catchy R&B track driven by melody that compares sex (a common theme on the album) to the press, as someone else doing what he or she wants with her body sexually is similar to the press saying what they want about her body, which Gaga has faced throughout the last couple of years. She has constantly been criticized because of fluctuations of her weight, which she has always seemed to respond to fearlessly. I like the song, but like I said, I am not an R. Kelly fan, so I wish that she had either done this solo or featured a different artist. I have heard a rumor (I have done a little bit of research, and the rumor appears to be true) that R. Kelly was once brought up on charges due to a sex tape showing him having sex with an underaged girl and urinating on her, and if that's true, it really disappoints me that Gaga would collaborate with him. Gaga is not the goddess of morality and ethics (she is a human being), and even if she were, musically collaborating with someone responsible for an act like that does not make her guilty of it herself, but I guess that I have just held her to such high professional standards for years and, therefore, expect her artistic collaborations to be very selective, but she has said that she is a fan of R. Kelly's work as a musician, so I shouldn't judge. I respect her, and I respect her artistic decisions even if I don't agree with them (assuming, as I said, that the rumor is even true). The eighth track is the title track "Artpop," a groovy, dreamy disco cut that is reminiscent of late 70s, early 80s Blondie; think "Rapture" meets Gaga, and it is not the first time that something that Gaga has done has reminded me of Blondie; The Fame's "Summerboy" reminds me of "Heart of Glass." "Artpop" compares an unlikely romance to an unlikely blending of art and pop culture. I like the song a lot, but the comparison fails when, in the chorus, the lyrics are as such: "We could, we could belong together (artpop)…" The word "artpop" is thrown into the chorus of the song needlessly and ruins the love metaphor. I really wish that the song were more abstract, especially since it is the title track of an album titled ARTPOP.
"Swine" is sort of like "Aura" in that it is pure chaos and insanity. It is definitely the messiest song on the record as far as that goes, lyrically and melodically alternating between dismissive snark ("I know, I know, I know, I know you want me…") and downright anger ("Squealer, squealer, squeal out; you're so disgusting…"). I wish that the version that she performed at the iTunes Festival earlier this year, on which she kickstarted the song with a slow introduction on the piano and electric guitar, more closely resembled the version on the album. This is another low point on the album for me, mainly because I am someone who strongly believes in the respect for and dignity of animals, and pigs being associated with disgust and repulsion is age-old and tiresome. Pigs are actually very clean most of the time; they do occasionally roll around in mud, but so do other animals such as horses and dogs; they are smart and know that it has benefits for their skin. I also do not understand the villainizing of pigs; they are actually very smart and usually very friendly, loving animals. The speaker of the song has been drastically offended by someone (I read that Gaga wrote the song about the feud that she had with Perez Hilton not too long ago) and, therefore, compares him to a pig. How original. The tenth track is "Donatella," a song written about Gaga's close friend Donatella Versace, Italian fashion designer and vice-president of the Versace group. Gaga, during a JustJared interview this year, described the song as such: "[It] is an incredible crazy fun pop song with really raising electronic beats that I did with Zedd." It is in the spirit of Born This Way's "Scheiße" in that it is about being a fearless woman who does not care about backlash that she may receive, whether it be from the media, friends, family, or whomever. The record moves into "Fashion!" which is a Bowie-esque piano pop/piano rock track about fashion being a personally liberating art, featuring a "Marry the Night" reference in the lyrics: "Married to the night, I own the world…" Gaga certainly does not hide her love for fashion (nor does she need to), as this is not even her first song with this title (the first does not feature the exclamation mark), and Born This Way features the tracks "Fashion of His Love" and "Black Jesus † Amen Fashion."
"Mary Jane Holland" is one of the three songs on the album that I consider my favorites (the others, again, being "Venus" and "G.U.Y."). The song is an epic electro-rock and electropop clash with a chorus that seems to be pleading with whomever is listening to allow her her fantasy of escaping fame and temporarily being someone else: "I think that I would be fine if I could be Mary Jane Holland tonight…" The song was written during a time when Gaga was addicted to marijuana (it's not a coincidence that the name Mary Jane kind of looks like the word) and was using it as a coping mechanism to escape fame. Lyrics such as "When I ignite the flames and put you in my mouth, the grass heats up my insides, and my brunette starts to sprout" make this obvious. During a Sirius XM track-by-track discussion of the album, Gaga explained that she would go out partying and would get high on marijuana, and one night in particular, she insisted upon being called Mary Jane Holland. The track also seems to possibly suggest that while under the influence, the speaker fantasizes about engaging in a threesome with two men and/or watching them have sex, due to a line that is a clever allusion to the Greek god Apollo (depicted as young and attractive), the god of many different elements such as music and poetry: "…So if you have fear, Apollo, sit on my lyre, and play him like a piano, man" (possibly an allusion to the Billy Joel song and/or album "Piano Man," as well). Although I do not use or condone drug use, I respect this song because I do know what dependence feels like and how amazing it can feel, and structurally and lyrically, the song is one of the album's highlights. "Dope," as Gaga explained in the Sirius XM interview, is sort of like a sequel to "Mary Jane Holland," the aftermath of the party after the party has hurt loved ones. "Dope" (released as a promo single) is the only time that the album slows down and gives us a slow, soft song. Played almost entirely on the piano (with a little bit of synth here and there), the song is a heartbreaking apology to those whom have been hurt by her drug use, and the chorus is my favorite part of the song: "My heart would break without you, might not awake without you. Been hurting low for living high for so long. I'm sorry, and I love you…" I love the song, but I prefer "I Wanna Be with You," the version of the song that she performed at the iTunes festival, and I kind of wish that that version had been recorded in the studio and shared with us.
Next in line on the album is "Gypsy," a fast-paced Céline Dion-esque rock track about life on the road, plane, etc. (a traveling life). Gypsies were Romani people that were believed to have been cast out of Egypt, and they did not have homes because they were nomads, traveling from one place to the next, similar to the life of a star who is constantly touring. The lyrics seem to be saying that the speaker does not want to spend her entire life without a traditional family (partner, potentially a child or children, a domestic home, etc.) but that for now, she is okay not having that because her fans are her family, and she has a home with them. This is the song on the album that I think most closely resembles the preceding album Born This Way, since I clearly hear echoes of songs such as "Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)" and "The Edge of Glory." "Gypsy" is a beautiful song that I think is going to end up being released as a single because of how often she chooses it when she only performs one or two songs. The album closes with its lead single "Applause." Lyrically, it is a great way to close the album, as it is a tribute and a "thank you" to the fans who have supported her, which is also an effective way of following up on "Gypsy." However, stylistically and melodically, the album is not effectively closed. "Applause," which is a synthesized dance track about how much appreciation that she has for the love that she receives from her fans, leaves the album feeling incomplete and unfinished, which could be intentional because apparently, on top of the Tony Bennett collaboration album titled Cheek to Cheek that is due on New Year's Day 2014, Gaga has an ARTPOP: Act Two, which will reportedly feature more experimental material as opposed to the more commercial material on this album, in the works, and I am really looking forward to both releases (Cheek to Cheek and the second volume of ARTPOP). ARTPOP is, overall, a decent pop album, but I know that Gaga is capable of much better because I have heard much better, and I hope to be further rewarded for friendly criticism but loyalty when the second volume is released. I have, however, warmed up to it a great deal since first hearing it.
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