So I managed to get my paws on some freshly leaked Lady GaGa material -- in the form of all the new tracks on the hotly anticipated, newly revamped edition of her first album, The Fame Monster. It's pretty hot shit. You can find any of the tracks on Youtube by just searching the track title. They take them down, but not fast enough to find a copy for your ears. Anyholler, here's a few thoughts for your digestion:

1. "Bad Romance": As my friend Justin said, "It's like she just came back the future and is like, 'Here's what's going to be hot next.'" Bad Romance is emblematic of her keen eye for constructing music that pulls from a number of different genres, creating something delectable and pornographic for the ears. BR manages to sound retro at points and futuristic at others. And the way she sings on this track is throaty, aggressive, and demanding -- it's a turn-on, basically. The only part I don't really "get" is the "Walk, Walk / Fashion, baby / I'm a freak bitch, baby." Not the lyrics, but the actual generically poptastic moment of the song (see the 3:28 mark in the video below). It just doesn't really fit, to my ears anyhow. I also think the song starts of VERY strong, blowing its wad way too soon, and seems to have trouble resolving itself. Alas, I still LOVE this track. I think it's one of the most amazing singles she's released to date. And the video is pretty spectacular:

2. "Alejandro": If this isn't a direct homage to Ace of Base, I don't know what it is. AoB is just dripping from the beats and synthetic instrumentation here. And when she sings "Don't call my name," it sounds EXACTLY like AoB's "I Saw the Sign." But more than that, there's also something silly / Europop in the lyrics that makes it particular reminiscent of other artists from the region -- ABBA, obviously ("Fernando," anyone?), but also the lesser known (in the US) French artist Claude Francois and his ridiculously nonsensical track, "Alexandrie, Alexandra" (see video here). I love that she keeps changing the name of this man in the song, Alejandro then Roberto then Fernando. It reminds me of being in Mexico and my friend and fellow Trevorade blogger Nolberto constantly referring to his boyfriend with a different name. By the end, Maxime and I had a running joke of making up a long string of names for him: Manuel Eduardo Roberto Consuela, etc. But that's more of an inside joke than anything. It's a cute song.

3. "Monster": Obviously, she's going for a theme here. When she sings "He ate my heart and then he ate my brain," you're kind of worried for her. The synth beats here have an 80s feel, with a bit of 90s pop flare. I think the song feels a bit underconstructed -- a good idea that wasn't quite followed through. And whereas "Bad Romance" excels in drawing from numerous genres, here it feels a bit sloppy -- particularly when producer RedOne (at least I think that's him) pops out of nowhere to sing the ridiculously generic line, "Wanna dance with her, she's hot as hell." Don't get me wrong, I like the track -- but it feels a bit like biting into a delicious pancake to find the center filled with undercooked raw dough.

4. "Speechless": Obviously inspired by 1960s British pop-rock (it feels at times like a jazzed up Oasis vis-a-vis the Beatles) this song has me perplexed. I really can't decide if I want to marry or divorce it. Ballads aren't her thing -- at least not yet -- so perhaps it's the slowness of the song that has me more perplexed than anything. Apparently this is her next single, and somehow that makes sense: It brings a new kind of GaGa to the radios, a logical kind of progression in mixing things up. I do like the song, but I'm frustrated by the ending -- or the lack thereof, really. The song just kind of anti-climatically collapses and falls to the ground like a dead deer. It's like she couldn't quite figure out how many times singing "I'll never love again" is too many. But I'm intrigued by this song, and that's a good thing, because it makes me want to listen to it over and over and over again to figure it out.

5. "Dance in the Dark": To me, this track makes the most sense as the single to follow "Speechless." It's dark, edgy, and dramatic -- the qualities that make "Bad Romance" so dramatically delicious, but in a slightly different, more heroine-chic costume. In this sing, apparently she's a "free bitch, baby" (as opposed to a "freak bitch" in BR. I honestly don't get it. But whatever). This song is FIERCE. It's just fucking amazing. I can't describe it. I want to listen to this when I'm working out, waking up, walking to class, teaching a class, whatever. This song is changing my life. Madonna's here. So is Blondie. And then, of course, Gaga making this beast her own. Expect this video to be taken down, but here's the track for now:

6. "Telephone" (feat. Beyonce): I already claimed to be disappointed by this song. But I have to say, it's one of those songs that makes you want to listen to it again -- despite your best intentions to be totally over it. It's certainly miles better than Beyonce's track that GaGa appears on, the similarly titled "Video Phone" (video). But Beyonce's part is gross for the way it manages to pull out all of her generic R&B stops. If you excise Beyonce's part, it's satisfying as a saccharine dancefloor-filling anthem.

7. "So Happy I Could Die": I can't place what this song reminds me of - but it definitely echos a few other tracks that are escaping my presently. It's a really lovely song, good for a movie soundtrack, perhaps, but it's not single material. It's too lounge / low-key (by GaGa's standards, anyways). But can someone please tell me what song it sounds like when she sings "Happy in the club with a bottle of red wine / Stars in our eyes 'cause we're having a good time." It's driving me CRAZY! (UPDATE: Paul from TheSword.com e-mailed in and cracked the code! It reminds me of Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine."!!! Thanks, Paul!!!):

8. "Teeth": This could have been an interesting song. The tribal-esque beats give it a mystical kind of feeling, while her singing and the song's structure echo Christina Aguilera. In fact, it's like Christina was slaughtered and sprinkled all over this track. In that vein, I don't know why GaGa sometimes feels the needs to intersperse her songs with overdubbed poptastic comments in the background. It makes her sound reminiscent of the Britney Spears of yore. (Like when she poptastically chirps "YEA!" in the background of "Paparazzi.") It's unnecessary and distracting. Here in this track, she makes the same mistake, opting to fill the background with a kind of slutty commentary and laughter. Just cut it out!!!!! This is definitely the throw-away track of the new album. There's nothing particularly exciting here.