It”s still a week until Lady Gaga”s “Born This Way” drops, but the constant teasing continues, this time with “Hair.”
The track, at least the fifth that she”s revealed from the new album, is a rocker that, like “The Edge Of Glory,” features E Street Band”s Clarence Clemons. It”s also another in a series of tunes that salutes those follicles on top of our head, whether it be Willow Smith”s “Whip My Hair,” India.Arie”s “I Am Not My Hair” or, of course, the original theme to the musical “Hair.”
According to some websites, we”ve read that Lady Gaga describes the tune as having a “Bruce Springsteen vibe,” but to us it is all about Laura Branigan. She sounds like she”s channeling the late “Gloria” and “Self Control” singer. We first noticed the vocal similarity on “Paparazzi,” but really hear it here.
So far, we”ve gotten an interesting mix of what Lady Gaga has to offer between the piano ballad “You and I,” the anthemic “Born This Way,” “Judas” and “The Edge of Glory.”
This a high energy electro rocker that”s busier than Ben & Jerry”s “Chubby Hubby” ice cream: between the keyboards, the auto-tuned stuttering in the middle, the insistent drum beat, and Lady Gaga”s whelping at the end there is a lot going on here on the RedOne-produced track. But we like it, in part because we really like the songs that show off Lady Gaga”s singing, like “Bad Romance,” and her commitment to the vocal. It may sound a bit like there”s everything here but the kitchen sink, but every element has a purpose, if only to amp up the hair-whipping frenzy.
Lyrically, it”s definitely meant to appeal to the younger end of her demo as she sings about “Whenever I dress cool/My parents put up a fight” and “I scream Mom and Dad, ‘why can”t I be who I want to be”.” She may be a self-confessed Daddy”s girl, but she”s about 10 years past asking her parents” permission for anything.
[More after the jump…]
We have no idea what “This is my prayer/that I”ll die living just as free as my hair” means, especially since Lady Gaga recently admitted that hers is falling out from the constant dye jobs. But we certainly get the overall gist, which, like almost all of Lady Gaga”s songs, is a clarion call for freedom to live one”s life how one wants. Who doesn”t want that?
What do you think?