"Alejandro" by Lady Gaga

"Don't call my name, don't call my name, I am sleepy"

An artist of Gaga's aspirations has a lot to live up to with each successive single. For some part, she has delivered truly transcendent pop songs, such as "Bad Romance" and "Paparazzi", each of which featured splendid, expansive melodies and non-derivative harmonic material ("Paparazzi" even features a genuinely effective modulation - a rarity in pop music these days) as well as the vibrant, obsessive lyrics that make up all of the best in pop. "Alejandro" features quite the opposite: a repetitive, claustrophobic melody (at least for the chorus); a derivative progression (IV-I-V-vi for the majority of it) and lyrics that actively reject her object of obsession ("don't call my name"). While the song is catchy and has found some success, I don't believe that it possesses the same durability as Gaga's earlier hits.

This is not to say that the song is without merit. While I have criticized the chorus melody, the verse melody is quite dynamic and possesses a strong originality. It starts off with a fragment of the verse of "LoveGame" ("I wanna kiss you" becomes "she's got both hands...") and then departs into a new, varied series of phrases. The progression (i-III-v) is also striking and facilitates the inventive melody. In contrast, the pre-chorus melody is more static, as to draw attention to the rhythm; this gives the vocals the impression of rap.

While the verse is impressive, the standout moment in this song is the slow buildup of elements beginning at the bridge and continuing until the end. What could have been a one-off chorus and fin becomes an exciting minute and a half of cascading "Alejandro"s. Though this section of the song is very well-done, it could have been even better had it lasted a little longer and incorporated some of Gaga's higher, more powerful register, which is strangely underutilized.

This song fell short of absolute brilliance, but I do believe that Lady Gaga has what it takes to write durable and timeless pop music. She just needs to understand exactly what elements separate her good songs from her great ones, and focus on refining those elements. In the case of "Alejandro", I would say that her harmonizations are the biggest issue - a reharmonization of the chorus could improve this song significantly.

"I like the sound of this...HARMonization. Tell me more"