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The Singles Bar: Lady Gaga, “Judas”

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Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 04/15/2011 at 2:09 PM Reviews

The Popdust Files: judas, lady gaga, Premiere

Truth told, we were kind of hoping that the insane description of “>Lady Gaga‘s new single “Judas” provided by Popjustice ended up being a complete fabrication, with the song turning out to be some nondescript acoustic ballad or something—c’mon, it would’ve been pretty funny. But gosh darn it, looks like they were pretty close after all. “Judas,” which leaked earlier today, is indeed a nutty, hooky, overstuffed dance-floor stormer, one that would be unmistakably Gaga at every single turn even if she didn’t shout her own name out a couple times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWpkZSCMXU

It’s a telling detail about the song’s undisguised bombast that it needs three different intros before even getting to the first verse. “Judas” starts with twinkling keyboards adorning a distant-sounding Gaga singing “Woah-oh-oh, I’m in love with Ju-u-das, Ju-u-das,” which quickly cuts to a much shriller Gaga yelling “JU-DAS! JU-DA-AH-AH!,” and then to a growling, stuttering synth hook (“Flat Beat,” anyone?) approximating her vocal line. Then, finally, the song’s stomping beat, and Gaga, with her “decadent half-sung, half-rapped Jamaican Patois style” as Popjustice promised, barking through the verse and pre-chorus amidst now stadium-sized synths: “I’ll bring him down, bring him down, down / A king with no crown, king with no crown.”

It’s a credit to the song that throughout these rapid-fire switch-ups—which persist throughout the song’s four-minute-plus running time—it never feels disjointed or messy, but rather just the musical product of a known workaholic of an artist that has a lot of shit to get through and isn’t going to waste any time doing so. It’s exhausting, but it’s also transfixing, and by the time you’re done listening to it, you could have as many as four or five different hooks battling for space in your head for the rest of the afternoon.

Where “Judas” lets down, though, is in the chorus. Gaga sandpapers down the rough synths of the verses as she reverts to sing-songy mode for one of her slighter choruses to date: “I’m just a holy fool / Baby, it’s so cruel / But I’m still in love with Judas, baby.” Melodically and rhythmically, the chorus borrows unapologetically from “Bad Romance”—which wasn’t that far off from “Poker Face,” which had echoes of “Just Dance,” etc.—and Gaga herself has owned up to that, explaining that she “wanted [the song] to be an evolution from where I’ve been before, but in terms of the formula I wanted there to be something about ‘Judas’ that reminded people of what I’ve done in the past.”

Fair enough, but the reminder here isn’t doing the song any favors. The chorus of “Bad Romance” was all release, the perfect widescreen complement to the creeping tension of the song’s verses. There’s nothing creeping about the tension in the verses to “Judas”—it’s all in-your-face intensity, making the song’s light chorus feel like Gaga is pulling back, shying away from going H.A.M. for the song’s entirety. And however she explains it away, it’s hard to buy that it was really necessary for her to echo “Romance” so closely—if you can make it past the “Woah-oh-ohs” without sarcastically (if not reflexively) filling in the “Cauuught in a bad romance” part yourself…well, you’re a much less jaded pop fan than we are.

Ultimately, the thing is still a treat on a Friday afternoon, and there’s little doubt that it’s going to be massive—the song is almost threatening in its attack, like it’s going to beat you up if you try to ignore it. If Gaga hadn’t felt the need to handicap “Judas” with one of her legacy-continuation choruses, it could have been a classic, but as is, it’s going to have to suffice for being the biggest mindfuck of a Top 40 pop song to hit the airwaves in years.

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Rating: 4.0/5 (5 votes cast)