Music Review: Lady Gaga "Judas"

Lady Gaga

Judas

Album: Born This Way

Year: 2011

        Lady Gaga is in love with the bad boy in the self-important “Judas."

       Praising synths open the single, setting a genuflecting tone. In the intro, she says she wants the bad boy, who she calls Judas and then advertises it’s a Gaga song by saying her name. (“Oh, oh, oh, oh/I'm in love with Juda-as, Juda-as/Oh-oh-oh-ohoo /I'm in love with Juda-as, Juda-as /Judas Juda-a-a, Judas Juda-a-a/ Judas Juda-a-a, Judas Gaga/Judas Juda-a-a, Judas Juda-a-a, Judas Juda-a-a, Judas Gaga.”)

        Her boyfriends snaps his fingers, she heads right over to him to find out what he needs. He will bathe him if he asks and turn the other cheek after she’s heard him say he went out with his friends. She knows he was with another woman. She vows to change him. He’s arrogant and pushy but he doesn’t have any real power.  (“When he comes to me, I am ready/I'll wash his feet with my hair if he needs /Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain /Even after three times, he betrays me.”)

            In the chorus, she can’t help it liking him. He calls her names and orders her around.  Yet, she will stay with him. (“I'm just a holy fool, oh baby he's so cruel /But I'm still in love with Judas, baby/I'm just a holy fool, oh baby he's so cruel/But I'm still in love with Judas, baby.”)

        The intro is sung again.

       Out of all the men she’s been with, he’s the only one who has made her world stop. She excuses his aggressive behavior by saying his boss and friends know it’s just how he is. He’s a jerk and it’s what people expect him to be.  The tumultuous relationship weighs on her. Some days, he will talk about getting married. Then, the next day he will call her a whore.  (“I couldn't love a man so purely/Even prophets forgave his goofy way /I've learned love is like a brick, you can /Build a house or sink a dead body/I'll bring him down, bring him down, down/A king with no crown, king with no crown.")

            The chorus is sung again.  

           The jittering beat gets ready to dive, then slides to a sudden stop, leading to the bridge.

        There, she says she deserves to be treated like nothing.  She’s disgusted by herself. She has done so many unforgivable things, people from her past won’t have anything to do with her.  She has stepped on others in order to be in the spotlight and be the center of attention. She has used her body to sell herself, exclaiming provocative phrases to get ahead.  She believes ethics won’t matter thirty years from now. She waits to see if he ashamed of her. Despite him not wanting to hear it, she tells him to pretend she’s not talking the next time.  She would like to leave him for a man who will bring out the best in her. However, she still looks to her boyfriend for approval. (“Ew/In the most Biblical sense/I am beyond repentance/Fame hooker, prostitute wench, vomits her mind/But in the cultural sense /I just speak in future tense /Judas kiss me if I offenced/Or wear an ear condom next time/I wanna love you/But something's pulling me away from you/Jesus is my virtue/Judas is the demon I cling to/I cling to.”)

           The chorus is sung again.

          The intro is sung again, closing the single.  

      Gaga’s deferential, loathing vocals are brittle, breaking at the slightest hint of strength. She’s bound to her self-pity, unwilling to release the iron shackles she has latched onto even though she can tear away whenever she wants.

         The religious metaphor is rightfully considered controversial.  She is turning figures from the Bible, which many believe in and turn to as a source of faith, into a dragged out love triangle straight from a CW teen soap. She cheapens them into cliches. She casts Judas as Dylan McKay (from the original Beverly Hills 90210), a drug-addled womanizer who is damaged yet who is still accepted by his friends that he has screwed over multiple times. Jesus is Nathan Scott (from One Tree Hill), the doting, loving man who will stand up for his girl and sacrifice his identity to keep her.

      Religious metaphors can be executed well. Tori Amos made a career out of it and Madonna dabbled a bit. However, the key is to be respectful, honoring the faith even if the person disagrees. For Gaga, it’s a blatant gimmick, a marketing scheme to show how progressive she actually is from the rest of society.

    The  big-mouthed “Judas” pricks, shoves and screams in an effort to shock, upping the volume after each blank stare and eye-roll.