There are a lots of opinions about Lady Gaga, but they rarely relate to her actual music. Her eccentric personality and her obnoxious displays of garish and gaudy fashion. However, behind her ostentatious displays of attention-whoring clothing and shows, there is music there. There are some people who write her off simply because of her stage persona, but Gaga has the ability to write some truly fantastic pop tracks. The Fame was solid, The Fame Monster was actually kind of great, and Born This Way was one of the worst albums released that year. Her career has been hit-or-miss, and Artpop just continues this trend, being a weird mix of hits and…well…misses.

The production throughout this record, while being neutered and clean, is pretty great. The low scratchy synths underneath G.U.Y. are heavy as hell, and they drive a rather dumb song pretty well. The opener Aura is supercharged by harpsichords, some brostep like instrumentals (Which are, oddly enough, not too distracting), and a stellar hook. The verses are a bit plain, but the rest of the song is spot on. There are a lot of songs here where the production can save some awful, awful lyrics.

Lyrically, there are moments that are really, really dumb. After the awesome opener Aura, the blunt hit-you-on-the-head space stories in Venus were a bit cloying. And the talk-singing at several parts, as always, is one of my least favorite things. When she says “Retweet Me” on G.U.Y., I almost wrote off the entire song, despite the really cool production.  Now, I don’t remember sexual lyrics being overly blunt on her past projects, but they are at the forefront here. Euphemisms aren’t really here anymore, and she straight up says “When I lay in bed I touch myself and think of you” on the catchy but creepy Sexxx Dreams (Which has the most groan-worthy title).

There are moments here that are absolutely dreadful. I never want to hear T.I. on a Lady Gaga song again after hearing the absolute clusterf*ck of a song that Jewels N’ Drugs. The weird trap production and awful verses really clash with Gaga’s Madonna-style vocals. Too $hort’s verse is particularly unbearable. And even though I really love Twista, he does not help this disaster of a song. Also, a lot of the second half begins to wane compared to the first, since the the album kind of loses some momentum and resorts to some weaker hooks and bland production.

However, even with the worst songs here, Gaga can actually bring a lot to the table. On songs like MANiCURE, her vocals are in full force, and she can deliver a pretty sweet hook (Which also helps with the cool stomp-clap beat here). Then there’s songs like Do What U Want, which has a beat that would have fit in perfect on the soundtrack for Drive. Her vocals are passionate, the hook is stellar, and R. Kelly’s appearance here is pretty great too (“We don’t give a FUUUUUUUUU…”). Applause is also a really fantastic song, with an explosive hook and some pretty awesome verses. The production is also really great here, which makes it one of Lady Gaga’s better singles. There are a lot of songs here that fall into a lot of EDM tropes that are big these days, but they’re executed well enough to make it pretty fun.

In fact, this whole album runs along those lines. There’s nothing revolutionary, nothing truly amazing, nothing game changing. There are some bad lyrics and some of the production is a bit derivative and unoriginal (at points). But Artpop is a ton of fun, and there are some solid pop songs scattered throughout here. It’s not an album worth revisiting, and it’s more of a pick-and-chose affair. But there are some solid picks here.

Summary: Despite some dreadful lyrics and some weak generic ideas and tropes, there are some great pop tracks on Artpop, with solid hooks and production tending to outnumber the mediocre ones.

Choice Cuts: Applause, Do What U Want, Aura, Swine

Leftovers: Jewels N’ Drugs (Potential “Worst Song of the Year”)

C+

You can stream Applause below (The video itself kind of sucks…). Artpop is out now on Streamline/Interscope