Lady Gaga’s bad romance just got a bit more sinful. “Judas,” the second single off the soon-to-be-released Born This Way takes the melody of “Bad Romance” and adds religious controversy as any wannabe Madonna should. Instead of screams of “ra, ra, ah, ah, ah,” Lady Gaga cries “Judas, ah, ah, ah!” Instead of the Euro-tinged industrial beats, producer RedOne mixes in tribal drums and New Wave influences. Already inciting controversy over Gaga’s worship of the devil, the song uses Judas as an analogy for a deceitful lover and brings absolutely no subversive value to the song. While “Judas” is sinfully delicious as a pop single and hits harder than “Born this Way,” maybe we just went a little bit too gaga over Gaga. The single exposes the innate stupidity of Gaga’s music.
Continuing the chill phase of their career, Radiohead released “Supercollider” on April 16 for Record Store Day. For its entire seven minutes, the song has about as much movement as lava. Built around glitchy electronics and synthesized piano chords, “Supercollider” describes particles smashing into one another. There is an eerie quality beneath the song with Thom Yorke’s echoing lyrics. Though “Supercollider” has a pulse greater than half of their latest album, King of Limbs, that is not saying much. Damn, what happened to the Kid A days when the band had a bit more urgency?
Far removed from the buzz that surrounded their arrival onto the music scene four years ago, The Arctic Monkeys feel free to experiment on “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair,” the first single off of their upcoming album Suck It & See. The band abandons their sugary, hook-heavy Brit-rock sound for heavy, clanging ’90s-tinged rock. Lead singer Alex Turner does his best Eddie Vedder with his deep, foreboding vocals while the guitar chord rollicks along to a Clash-inspired melody. The Arctic Monkeys have moved on from being cute British boys to the rebellious teenagers trying and successfully growing up.