Lady Gaga - Applause

Lady Gaga and Katy Perry are both out applauding and roaring for all their worth. Pop hasn’t seen a head to head this epic since Nicki Minaj cooked up some serious beef with Mariah Carey. El Hunt was tasked with delivering the verdict on both glossy triumphs in something hastily titled ‘POP WARS’.

Read the verdict on ‘Roar”s tiger pounce here.

Gags is back, and this time she’s not mucking round with plastic eggs, meat dresses or the rest of it. She’s been too busy taking singing lessons from David Bowie for all that haute couture nonsense, by the sounds of her abrupt, scrappy-doo vocal yelping on the verses.

It’s Eurotrash meets Ultravox; dark dingy clubs with flickering neon strips and apple sourz. It’s a far better debut album single than ‘Born This Way’ - in fact it might be the best album taster we’ve ever had from Gaga. ‘ARTPOP’ promises to be a top album, and ‘Applause’ will be a club staple in a matter of weeks. It’ll make an excellent change from Robin Thicke.

No matter how catchy ‘Applause’ is, though, anybody who seriously refers to themselves as a ‘cultural interface’ is tip-toeing the fine line bordering self-parody. Full of Ironic Statements, and aside winks, ‘Applause’ is busy playing the underdog and sticking it to the critics – a largely wasted effort really, because until now nobody apart from Lana Del Rey thought her to be particularly offensive. The commercial says “Lady Gaga is no longer relevant”, she’s “over”. Do not buy the single, the letters read, before providing a link to the iTunes shop. Ha! So edgy, so ironic. The thing is though, the underdog act doesn’t really wash.