Lady Gaga - A Very Gaga Holiday EP Review
Posted by Wyatt E. on 11.25.2011
Lady Gaga drops a holiday EP to coincide with her TV special, which sees her try her hand at old time vocal pop. Also, cookies?!?
1. White Christmas - 3:22
2. Orange Colored Sky - 2:33
3. Yoü and I - 3:34
4. The Edge of Glory - 4:52
"So, as you can tell, I'm very outgoing, and a little bit shy."
While Born This Way was an easy success thanks to Gaga being over like gangbusters, it also showed that Gaga tends to restrict herself when she has her game face on (that game face is probably covered with sparkles and spines). Dance beats loom large, the electronica is thick as a jungle, and when the piano pops up for the inevitable power ballad, it's more of a breather in the grand scheme of things. Not that the dance music isn't quite good on its own, but it's obvious that Gaga can do many different things if she chooses to.
A holiday EP is a nice surprise, albeit not as surprising as her decision to make a Thanksgiving special, which this serves as an accompaniment to. This isn't to be confused for a Christmas EP, although it definitely carries its own festive, old-fashioned, down-home feeling that the old records have from back in the day. (No, before that. No, before that. There you go.) In fact, Gaga was even shrewd enough to have a test run for this kind of sound earlier this year, as she was one of the numerous vocalists who did a duet with Tony Bennett for his latest record. The song was the old standard "The Lady Is A Tramp," and, set to a standard pop orchestra, the two suited the song like a glove (even if she gets a little chatty). It also brought out a natural brassiness that had previously gone mostly undetected under all the production.
Gaga must have really liked how that turned out, because she wasted little time with attempting this venture by herself. For A Very Gaga Holiday, she gets a small orchestra of her own (plus the piano) for the first two tracks, which are more standards that she has no shyness about sinking her teeth into. Maybe she oversteps her boundaries a little bit: the first track, Bing Crosby's legendary "White Christmas" has a verse added to it written especially by Gaga. For many, this may be sacrilege, or if you're a fan, you'll probably eat it right up. Either way, it's a bit of a faux pas, mainly because the verse doesn't really add all that much to the song. Gaga sounds right at home on the track, however, and the band comes off quite well.
"Orange Colored Sky" is the other track, previously made famous by one Nat "King" Cole in the fall of 1950, and while this is not a holiday song per se, it fits somehow, maybe because she's no stranger to silly love songs. The vocal on this track is even better, as if she found her footing easily, and she makes it very clear as she tries out some jazz scatting, and even a touch of improv ("Orange colored, purple striped, bitty green polka-dot sky..."). It's too bad these are the only swing selections here because she could have easily filled up a full-length with more stuff like this.
The other two tracks are a pair of hits from Born This Way. The first is "You & I," which, on the album, served as the epic power ballad to provide a climax to the proceedings, and as such it was filled up with thundering drums, a Brian May guitar solo, echoed handclaps, and whatever else the producers felt like dumping in. Here, it's Lady Gaga and her piano, plus a seemingly leftover trumpet that busts out a pretty good solo midway through. The song benefits extremely well from the stripped-down setting, standing well on its own as an arrangement, and would've been better than the original had it not been for..... hm, what was that thing she did earlier? Ah yes, overstepping her boundaries. It's not enough for the song to fly under its own power; she has to repeatedly chant for "America!" in order to fixate it on the American Thanksgiving, and turn it into a patriotic love letter. It makes the song slightly trying when it should feel euphoric.
The set ends quickly with the piano version of "The Edge Of Glory" which fares much better. It's also the most glaring, and funny, example of a recurring trend on the album, which is Gaga's decision to be frank with her listeners and converse like she's in the same room. After the first chorus, she suddenly stops playing, and tells us a story about cookies. About cookies. And then she just starts playing again like nothing's weird. I don't know why I find that so inherently funny, but I just do. It's more than a little distracting as a listening experience, though, especially since it's arguable whether the conversational, friendly feeling was worth halting all the momentum for.
The 411: In just four songs, Gaga aims for numerous things. She wants a home-for-the-holidays feeling, a classic vocal pop record, and a unique rapport with her loyal Little Monsters. It could also feasibly be a Gaga record for people who don't really take heed to her usual style. Or it would be had it not been for her own personal traits and excesses that still manage to permeate the EP (still laughing that she stopped a song to tell a story about cookies). Worth hearing if you like that old style, or if you long to have a taste of Gaga without the beats and craziness. For the most part, though, it's for fans, even if this is all still pretty good music. Here's hoping she tries this style again one day.
