Pulp Ranked: Lady Gaga's Albums
By Connor Wherrett
It’s with great fear that I took up this task of ranking Lady Gaga’s albums. This is a controversial subject that is precious to all Gaga fans, stans, and most members of the LGBTI community. In order to make sure I got this right I mathematically tabulated a ranking based on three criteria. Those are:
Quality of songs. The objective quality of songs in terms of repeatability, catchiness, lyrical and artistic meaning
Avant Garde-ness. How the songs offered to the world a new way of thinking, creative expression of ideas and new paradigms in music.
Cultural impact. How the songs infiltrated mainstream culture, performance and how much influence the songs had over 21st-century music and performance.
7. Cheek to Cheek (2014)
I love musical theatre, jazz, Gaga and Bennett. I should love this album. Yet, the marrying of these two voices creates an album version of a dusted DVD special. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve listened to this many times - and there are quite a few parts I enjoy, but there’s nothing special about this compilation of old-time hits. Honestly - I would guess that I’ve rewatched Gaga’s Tribute to the Sound of Music on YouTube more times than I’ve opened this album. Sorry Bennett and Gaga, it’s not a hit with me. It was fine, it was a nice listen - but it’s not much more than that.
Best song: Anything Goes.
Worst Wong: Nature Boy.
6. The Fame (2008)
The Fame is a good album. It’s an important album for me. At age 11 - I downloaded it off my parents’ computer from some dodgy website, and immediately printed off the lyrics of Poker Face to memorize. It's a debut and a classic. However - you can definitely tell while listening that Gaga is still in the process of figuring out who she is. I mean, she always is - she’s always reinventing herself. However, in this album is like looking at a photo of someone just before you met them. You know it’s them - you can see them there but they’re not quite ‘done’ yet. Also, some of the songs are just, well, bad. Nonetheless, Poker Face remains a seminal piece of work and shines well above this album.
Best Song: Poker Face
Worst Song: Paper Gangsta
5. A Star is Born Soundtrack (without Bradley Cooper’s solo songs) (2018)
I think most Gaga fans agree that this deserves to be in the list. Not an official Gaga album, but a critical part of her body of work. One may ask - is it possible to separate from this album from the inspiring and critically acclaimed performance in A Star is Born? To that I say - no, and that doesn’t matter. This album, and the songs, bring you straight back to the movie and make you feel those gut-wrenching moments, joys of Ally’s career and then back down again. This album this did suffer through from the fact that most of Ally’s pop songs are just not good at all. They don’t at all reach the level of Gaga’s singles - which is probably why they feel so disappointing. Sure, Why Did You Do That? has the potential to go off, but it’s hard to hit repeat.
Best Song: I’ll Never Love Again.
Worst song: Why Did You Do That?
4. Joanne (2016)
Gaga’s two most recent ‘standard’ albums - Joanne and Artpop are the sources of much discussion, debate and drama in the Little Monster community. This ranking will be controversial - but I will attempt to justify it. Joanne is a suite of 11 beautiful, fun, and engaging songs that are loved by Gaga fans. They are sweet, emotional and they carry a sense of realness that lifts them, especially when listened as an entire package. However, even the strongest song here, Joanne, shines better in the Piano version that is only available on the Deluxe Edition of the album. It’s simple, it’s beautiful and it’s a nice album. However - the cultural impact of Joanne was little felt outside Gaga’s circles. There’s little evidence of influence or mainstream pop infiltration. That shouldn’t be enough to downgrade the album if the songs are stellar if the songs are game-changing and stellar, but they’re not. They’re really good, but just not of the league of the remaining three albums on this list.
Best Song: Joanne
Worst song: Hey Girl
3. Artpop (2013)
Yup. Here we are. It’s the taboo subject of Gaga stans. Hot tip - if you’re at a dinner party with a bunch of early 20s gay men, just don’t mention Artpop. It’s in the same league as religion and politics at a family dinner. Notwithstanding that, I’ll have a crack at talking about it now. Artpop for me, is like Red Wine. I was truly disappointed when I first listened back in ‘13. It was the first - and only album that I bought. Like actually went to the store and purchased a CD of. I really was not a fan. Yet - I stuck with it. I listened, and I relistened. I played it through and I have to say now - all 15 songs on this mammoth album absolutely stand the test of time (except Dope). Gaga described the album as “a celebration and a poetic musical journey" - and she’s right. It’s a stellar tribute to her as an artist. It’s worth a re-listen if you gave this album a miss. While there’s no doubt that there could have been edits, I for one hold Artpop strongly in Gaga’s canon.
Best Song: G.U.Y.
Worst song: Dope
2. Born This Way (2011)
This album shot up the ranks due to a massive mark in the third category - cultural impact. There’s no doubt that every single song in Born This Way landed everywhere from ARQ to your mum’s radio. But it’s more than that. It’s that these songs landed their way into these places and meant something. Born This Way (the song) is an obvious cultural landmark that despite (potentially) overplayed has been a staple for the LGBTI community. Still the album doesn’t sacrifice it’s artistic credentials for mainstream popularity. Marry the Night, You and I and Hair are crucial artistic explorations of dark and meaningful themes. This is an album for the times, a shining light of all things Gaga and the one that little monsters will hold good favour with both the little gay boy and his mum who’s driving him to school.
Best song: Judas
Worst song: Schieße
1. The Fame Monster (2009)
It’s a testament to The Fame Monster that despite technically being an EP, these 8 songs are of enough of an artistic, critical and cultural impact that they shoot this album to the top of the list. Shortly after this album, Andrew Unterberger of Billboard stated that "Gaga raised the standards for ambition in pop." He’s absolutely right. This album launched Gaga into the stratosphere of pop music and cemented her as a transformative figure in the landscape of modern pop music. Bad Romance is celebration and ecstasy in performance. It is the living of pain, of feeling, of joy in explosive dance, outfits and pop. Alejandro, Monster and Speechless are dark, powerful and explosive in their ability to punch out raw emotions. Finally Telephone (ft. Beyoncé) is well, that’s just something completely else. It’s a level of performance that can send even the most anti-gaga person into a hysteria of pop-music induced movement. This album is Gaga, it is her essence, it is her performance - and it’s everything we wanted, even when we go back.
Best Song: Bad Romance
Worst Song: Teeth