LADY GAGA'S LATEST TRICK: BEING BORING

Lady Gaga's new video for the song "Alejandro" is the first boring video she's made since "Just Dance," and at least with that one she had excuses: she was new and probably not yet in control of her image or her budget. The imagery here is just too blatantly, clumsily hijacked—is she just straight-up making fun of Madonna at this point? It seems that way, with all the cheap Catholicism, black-and-white stroboscopic dancing, platinum hair and armies of muscle boys dressed like they're in an avant-garde theatre troupe from Barcelona circa 1988. Oh, and the machine gun bra. Subtle. Plus, the song is...just okay. It's catchy, but it's basically an Ace of Base cover of "La Isla Bonita." I think Gaga's only interesting as long as she's combining pop of the past with high/avant-garde art. "Bad Romance" was interesting because a) the song was better, and b) it combined "Express Yourself" with Cremaster. Plus this one is missing all the crazy occult symbolism (unless Catholicism counts as a cult). I think this was her first video in a while not to be directed by Jonas Åkerlund. That was probably a mistake.