Lady Gaga Born This Way Album Free Download Zip
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In March 2010, Gaga disclosed that she was working on a new album, saying that she had written most of the songs for this project.[8] Meanwhile, producer RedOne described it as Gaga's "freedom album"[9] as her then-manager, Troy Carter, felt her public image would begin to change after its release.[9] A few months after, Gaga exclaimed that she had finished writing songs for the album: "It came so quickly. I've been working on it for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day."[10] She first alluded to Born This Way during a SHOWstudio interview in the same year, answering what she would call the movie of her life.[11] In another interview, she declared the album "the anthem of [this] generation," as she continued, "It includes the greatest music I've ever written. I've already written the first single for the new album and I promise you, that this album is the greatest of my career."[10][12]
Born This Way received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on 34 reviews.[219] Dan Martin of NME said that "it's a damn good thing" that Gaga "doesn't know when to hold back" and complimented her for pushing musical boundaries to its "ultimate degree."[17] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine opined, "There's nothing small about this album, and Gaga sings the shit out of every single track."[225] Cinquemani compared the album to The Killers' album Sam's Town (2006), calling it "bloated, self-important, proudly American, an exercise in extraordinary excess."[225] Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield felt that "the more excessive Gaga gets, the more honest she sounds."[45] Caryn Ganz of Spin felt that "excess is Gaga's riskiest musical gamble, but it's also her greatest weapon, and Born This Way relentlessly bludgeons listeners' pleasure centres".[41] Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly said it is "rewarding but wildly uneven", although "the album's sprawl still shows off the breadth of her talent."[221] Despite criticizing her for "letting her skills as a songwriter slide ever so slightly," AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine complimented Gaga's composing "sensibility" and "considerable dexterity at delivering the basics."[51] In MSN Music, Robert Christgau viewed the album to not be on-par with The Fame (2008) or The Fame Monster (2009), but added that "both of those keep growing, and with its mad momentum and nutty thematics, this one could too."[224]
In a mixed review, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune felt it was rushed and sounded like "a major artist sprinting to please everyone all the time."[220] Evan Sawdey of PopMatters called it "her weakest album to date" and wrote that it combines "some daring songwriting with some remarkably repetitive themes and beats."[226] Writing for The Washington Post, Chris Richards found the album "boring" and said that, "at its worst, it sounds like reheated leftovers from some '80s movie soundtrack."[227] Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times opined that Gaga lacks musical adventurousness and that "She's unsubtle in her message, unsubtle in her dress, and, most important, unsubtle aesthetically ... If Gaga had only spent as much time on pushing musical boundaries as she has social ones, Born This Way would have been a lot more successful."[47] Andy Gill of The Independent critiqued that "the broader [Gaga] spreads her net musically, the less distinctive her art becomes."[223] The Boston Globe said that the songwriting "feels thin" and called the album "the most deflated moment in pop music this year".[228] The Village Voice's Rich Juzwiak commented that Gaga's "we-shall-overcome sentiment" is expressed more effectively through the album's "egalitarian use of house beats" than through her "sloganeering", which he found "trite" and "[un]insightful."[229]
Born This Way was included in several year-end lists by music critics and publications. Rolling Stone, in their list of the 50 Best Albums of 2011, ranked it at sixth place, writing "none of Gaga's previous exercises in musical plussizing prepared us for this kind of anything-goes extravagance".[266] The Guardian, in their list of the best albums of 2011, listed Born This Way at 31st.[267] Slant Magazine ranked the album as the third best of 2011 in their list of The 25 Best Albums of 2011, calling it a "magnum opus", and describing it as a "sincere ode to the bedazzled hearts of outsiders past and present".[268] Furthermore, MTV ranked it as the tenth best album of 2011, claiming it is the "first multi-national, multi-hyphenate, multi-sexual pop album of our time", and called it "her grandest mission statement to date".[269] Claiming that through the album, Gaga "thinks pop can still move policy, and she might be right",[270] and describing the record as the "biggest pop album" of 2011,[270] Spin listed Born This Way as the 29th best album of the year, as well as the best pop album of the year.[270][271] Digital Spy included Born This Way in their 25 Best Albums of 2011 list, at fifth place,[272] while the Daily Record ranked it at seventeenth out of twenty, commenting on Gaga having gone "full-scale European underground electro disco".[273]
In an interview with Billboard, Gaga said "I want to write my this-is-who-the-fuck-I-am anthem, but I don't want it to be hidden in poetic wizardry and metaphors," in regards to the literal, straightforward style of the album's lyricism. "I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue, because I think, especially in today's music, everything gets kind of washy sometimes and the message gets hidden in the lyrical play."[283] Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic agreed with Gaga's claims and argued that "queerness became more visible than ever". He described "Barack Obama's first years in office" as a "renewed period of forthright political engagement," while linking the release of Born This Way with the creation of the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video with a Message in 2011, of which "Born This Way" was its first winner.[284][285] Christopher Rosa from Glamour compared the title track to gay anthems such as Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and Katy Perry's "Firework", arguing that "they weren't lyrically explicit" and that anyone could relate to them regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, unlike "Born This Way", "a song specifically for LGBTQ people [...] that came at a time when discussions about gay teen suicide were reaching all-time highs."[286] Writing a retrospective of events after the album's release after five years, Jake Hall form Dazed called Born This Way a "misunderstood masterpiece", complimenting its "deliberately literal lyrics" in songs such as "Heavy Metal Lover", "Hair" and "Scheiße". Noticing that it "represents the point in Gaga's career when she deliberately stopped studying her own fame and tried to use it to further her own message", he claimed Born This Way as her "most ambitious musical project to date."[287] Marni Zipper from Audacy stated that the album "cemented the singer as a cultural, musical and fashion icon," while also claiming that its campaign, specifically the music video for "Judas", "[distorted] how Popstars ultimately used fashion to express 'eras' in music."[288] Born This Way has also been noted for bringing electronic dance music into the mainstream.[289][290]
In May 2021, the City of West Hollywood declared May 23 as the Born This Way Day in recognition of the album's cultural impact.[291] A street painting of the album's title and Daniel Quasar's re-designed version of the gay flag (which includes trans and queer people of color) has been made on Robertson Boulevard, while the key of the city was awarded to Gaga. Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath said Gaga "has become a cultural icon for our generation [...] through her music and activism," and also thanked her for "encouraging us to love ourselves and be proud." Gaga attended the ceremony wearing a Born This Way t-shirt from her own collection and thanked the LGBT community for "[being] the motherfucking key to my heart for a long time [...] I'll honor this and I'll cherish this, and I promise that I'll always be here for this day to celebrate with you."[292][293] In September 2021, during a marketing campaign, Spotify sponsored nine highways across the United States and named them after iconic songs with billboards, in which they included "Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)" in New York City.[294] On December 13, 2022, after Joe Biden, the president of the United States, signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law at the White House, "Born This Way" started playing immediately as planned.[295]
The music video of "Judas" was criticized by William Anthony Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, notably for Gaga's portrayal of Mary Magdalene. In an interview with HollywoodLife.com, Donohue expressed discontent towards Gaga's focus on Judas and Mary Magdalene, calling her "increasingly irrelevant" compared to people with "real talent", and attacked her for seemingly purposefully debuting the song and video close to Holy Week and Easter.[298] Shortly after its release, "Judas" was banned in Lebanon.[299] In Malaysia, where homosexuality is considered a criminal offense, the government criticized the album for its stance on sexuality and feminism.[300] Shortly after the release of the title track, radio stations across the country edited out several lyrics of the song as ordered by the Malaysian government.[301] Rosnah Ismail, the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, condemned the song, opining, "Islam forbids this. We have to abide by the country's laws."[302]
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