Here’s a new Interns challenge. For Trashed we’ll be looking back at the discographies of some of our favourite artists and deleting 3 songs off each of their project. No matter how good or bad the album is 3 need to go.
Lady Gaga is the next artist facing the album chop. Gaga has an impressive and varied discography. There are some misses but mostly plenty of hits and taking an axe to some of her most iconic records is going to be difficult.
The Fame
Trashed: Starstruck, Brown Eyes, I Like It Rough
The Fame, Gaga's ambitious debut, is truly a mixed bag. In that sense, it's difficult to decide which songs shouldn't be on there. The singles are all strong and have to stay while the tail-end is where things go awry. Startstruck, despite a strong hook, doesn't belong on the album nor does Flo Rida. As for I Like It Rough and Brown Eyes, they weigh down the bottom half of the album, lacking the punch of personality the rest of the album does.
The Fame Monster
Trashed: Teeth, So Happy I Could Die, Monster
We've set ourself the task of deleting 3 songs off each album which is truly a stupid task when the album is only 8 songs long. The Fame Monster is a perfect record. A hearty, experimental pop album that elevated Gaga to god-like status. Teeth is great but it's the obvious last place-getter on the album as it doesn't hit melodically like the rest. The next one to go is So Happy I Could Die. It's one of the better songs of her career but its subtlety means it fades into the background when competing against the rest of the songs. Now, we have to get rid of Monster for no reason really. It's brilliant but it can't stand up to the other five monumental pop songs.
Born This Way
Trashed: Black Jesus + Amen Fashion, The Queen, Americano
Finally, we can afford to be a bit more liberal with our guillotine. The deluxe edition of Born This Way is a meaty 17 songs long and there are three that stand out quite obviously in amongst an otherwise brilliant album. Black Jesus + Amen Fashion appears as more of an art project than song hopping all over the place. It's the album's most forgettable moment. The Queen, another bonus track, is a poor man's The Edge Of Glory which really didn't have to be on the album. The third delete is a little more difficult. Americano is a wildly entertaining and ambitious song but it's a dizzying overload on an album that's already pushing it over the top on numerous occasions.
ARTPOP
Trashed: Jewels N' Drugs, Swine, Aura
ARTPOP is a cult favourite at this point. Arguably, her least successful album, it's also her most experimental. It's an art project full of wild moments like its bonkers opener Aura which slaps most casual Gaga fans in the face. It's not the first to be deleted but it is one of the three. The first is, of course, Gaga's misadvised trip into hip-hop on Jewels N' Drugs with T.I., Too $hirt and Twista. Completing the trio is Swine which is more aggressive than a Skrillex song and a chainsaw that rips apart the middle of the album.
Cheek To Cheek
We'll let the Cheek To Cheek stans handle this. We'd be happy to hit delete on the whole record.
Joanne
Trashed: Just Another Day, Sinner's Prayer, Dancin' In Circles
Joanne wasn't without its critics but we were fans of Gaga's country trip. Some of her best vocal work and writing lies on this album and it's actually a difficult record to slice up. Bonus track Just Another Day is the most forgettable of the set and an easy chop. Sinner's Prayer, on the other hand, is a textured, gentle trip through country/Western sounds. Its subtlety, however, means it gets buried amongst some of the album's bigger moments. The third chop is a difficult one. We've settled on Dancin' In Circles which will be sure to be an unpopular choice amongst the pop fans. It's good but out of the album's three big pop moments (A-Yo, John Wayne) it's the obvious weak one.
Chromatica
Trashed: 1,000 Doves, Plastic Doll, Alice
Chromatica is so brilliantly pieced together that it feels criminal to take an axe to it. Still, it's the nature of the game and we're going to do it. 1,000 Doves has been our least favourite from the start thanks to its dated production so that's the first to go. It's only fair if we then chop one from each of Chromatica's three parts so we'll let Plastic Doll go from part two and Alice from part one. There's nothing particularly wrong with them but the album doesn't need them to be great. Moments like Replay or Free Woman, for example, simply can't be deleted nor can the singles.
