As a music writer without a take on Lady Gaga, I feel a bit like a sports commentator with nothing to say about the Super Bowl. But at this point Lady Gaga has become the Coca-Cola of pop music, an institution so omnipresent, and so controlled in its messaging, that I'm not even sure it's possible to have an original opinion about her; every thought I could have about Lady Gaga has been planted in my head by Lady Gaga herself.
Gaga's new Born This Way is set to be the year's blockbuster album, and thanks to aggressively low pricing at Amazon.com, it could reach first-week sales marks that may not be topped for years. Every other new release this week seems small by comparison, then, though I imagine most of these records would feel minor even if they didn't share a release date with such a juggernaut. Thurston Moore's Demolished Thoughts is a Nick Drake-esque set of acoustic pleasantries, with accompaniments from violinist Samara Lubelski and harpist Mary Lattimore, that makes me wish Moore would work some of these sounds into his records with Sonic Youth. The British buzz-band-by-numbers Friendly Fires nicely shake things up a bit on their sophomore album, Pala, by trading post-punk coolness for Duran Duran-style gloss. And David Bazan is in damn fine form on Strange Negotiations, which is as tough and fire-bellied of a record as he's made since disbanding Pedro the Lion. All of these are nice albums, but in two months, I probably won't remember any of them even exist.
Also out this week:
White Denim - D
Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!
French Horn Rebellion - The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion
Boris - Attention Please/Heavy Rocks
She Wants Revenge - Valleyhearts
New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys - NKOTBSB
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