I'll be the first person to admit it - I really like Lady Gaga. She's my favourite artist and has been for the last seven years. I'm one of her 'Little Monsters' and I'm rather proud of it.
So it's rare when I say that I'm disappointed with one of her songs. It's hard to explain, as the song in question has become one of my favourites over the last nine months.
It's called Partynauseous and it's an unreleased demo.
I first heard it in a YouTube video, shortly after Gaga started her worldwide 'artRAVE: the ARTPOP Ball' tour and it stirred up a frenzy on the fansites. Thumping bass, whizzing high-pitched synths, frantic fist-pumping - it's all a part of Partynauseous.
It's not a song that Gaga sings live. In her tour it's a piece that is played over the speakers while she changes, her dancers whipping the crowd of thousands of 'Little Monsters' into a screaming mess of sweat and tears (hopefully no blood, we're not that vicious). When I was down in the standing area, squeezed between a sea of bodies and tottering around on seven inch platform heels - Batpig ears on my head and glittery seashells on my chest -, it was a track that had us snapping at their heels, hungry for more.
The YouTube video attached to this post gives you an idea of just how fantastic the atmosphere, and the tune itself, was. Partynauseous was an experience, named so because it's completely sick. (That means really really good.) So imagine my delight when the studio leaked online.
I was just on my way to London for a weekend away so I rushed to download it and had it on my iPod just in time for my bus to the train station. Headphones in, I hit play.
And Partynauseous made me feel sick - but not for the same reasons as it had previously. This time it was an upsetting flip of my stomach rather than anything happy. Disappointment flooded through me. Where had my beloved Partynauseous gone?
It's now a glorified rap track, featuring more Kendrick Lamar than Lady Gaga. Her main verse of lyrics that looped around and around at the artRAVE is now nothing more than a four line hook at the end of the track.
There's no energetic beat, there's no bass that echoes in your chest. It's flat and dull. The tempo has reduced drastically, the once crazy and frantic party track is now more of an R&B ballad. It's safe to say that the live version returned to my iPod as soon as I got home that following Monday.
So I'm writing this blog post to simply spread the word about what I believe to be one of Gaga's best tracks. It's just a shame it's a flop of a demo.
At least the live version is a gem, no matter how short lived it was.
Listen, watch, and enjoy.
