This week, the media is pushing the biggest music release of the year…the new Lady Gaga album.  Is this the biggest release of the year…or is it the biggest release because the media is calling this the biggest release?  Sure, Gaga has stuck like lightning and been everywhere…and sold millions of albums in a dead market.  That certainly makes her marketable…but how much of it is based on actual merit and how much of the hype is specifically manufactured?  Gaga’s music is okay for what it is.  But how did she become this uber-star.  To me she is style over substance.

This outrageous dress is nothing new for pop/rock music.  David Bowie, Elton John, Kiss, Gwar have all been there and done that. But they had real solid music behind their glamour.  If you stripped everything away from Bowie and just left him with a mic and guitar, he could perform.  Elton and a piano could blow you out of the water.  I haven’t seen Gaga do anything without 50 dancers and lip sync track.  At a certain point your bite needs to be stronger than your bite.  Maybe Gaga will last…maybe she will be one of the greats.  But when real musicians are out there bleeding their souls on stage to entertain us, it’s hard for me to take an artist like Gaga seriously when people talk more about the sexual innuendos in her outfit than the quality of her music.  At least people are talking about her…even me.

On that note, get the new Lady Gaga album for only .99 cents.  Today only.  Yeah, I’m a whore.

Here Are the 11 Best Songs By Pedro The Lion:

1.  Simple Economics (Winners Never Quit)

2.  Rapture (Control)

3.  Penetration (Control)

4.  A Mind of Her Own (Winners Never Quit)

5.  When They Really Get To Know You (It’s Hard To Find A Friend)

6.  Magazine (Control)

7.  Start Without Me (Achilles Heel)

8.  I Am Always The One Who Calls (The Only Reason I Feel Secure)

9.  Never Leave A Job Half Done (Winners Never Quit)

10.  Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives (It’s Hard To Find A Friend)

11.  Big Trucks (It’s Hard To Find A Friend)

Buy David Bazan’s new solo album, Strange Negotiations.