Single review: Lady Gaga "Judas"

From the Earth Shattering disappointment that was Lady Gaga's last single Born this way, the singer has thankfully began her assent back up in my esteem with the release of new single Judas. But lets just be clear, my opinion of Gaga, which hit rock bottom in reaction to the manipulative Born this way, is still nowhere near the highs of The Fame Monster EP era.


Despite wanting to love it, me and Judas got off to a bad start from the get go thanks to its cheesy Euro-pop intro. To avoid tears of disappointment, I quickly lowered any expectations of greatness I had and instead readied myself for another cheesy mess of a track.

However, that all changed as the crazy, stuttering cries of "Judas" and the brilliantly dirty, electro-stomping bassline of the verse kicked in. This was the Gaga I had been waiting for; the one who brought it hard and fast. Almost immediately the sins of Born this way were forgiven and now with my expectations back sky high, I readied myself for the "cultural baptism" to begin!

Unfortunately that wasn't to be as my opinion of the song, and Gaga, once again nosedived as soon as the the mawkish, introduction-echoing, chorus kicked in. Ignoring the fact that the vocal melody sounded like a second-rate Bad romance knock-off, it was the cheesy Euro-pop sound, which was so overbearing and jarring in its contrast to the rest of the song, that was responsible for eviscerated the whole track for me.

The reinstated brilliance of the following verse, bridge and middle 8 would have me back liking the song again respectively as they appeared but ultimately every time the chorus hit I fell further and further into despair at how close to genius Judas was. How could Gaga have gotten parts so brilliantly right but others so unbelievably rotten.

Don't get me wrong Judas is definitely a hundred times better than Born this way, but its still not great. Some of the production is inspired, but the chorus and Gaga's lyrics-which are once again dire and dependant on their gravitas and punch being acquired by means other than quality writing- just let the whole thing down.  Here's hoping, as Judas was better than Born this way so may the next single be even better than Judas and so on and so forth with the album.

Does the audio from Judas copy Loli Lux's Wannabe? Listen below and judge for yourself.