27 · Look What I Found · from "A Star Is Born"
Gaga's contributions to the soundtrack for A Star Is Born can roughly be divided into songs explicitly designed to EXTRACT tears DIRECTLY from the duct, and frivolous synth-pop bangers meant to illustrate that Ally Maine was losing grip on her artistry in the evil music industry. Look What I Found is a song that falls into neither category - instead it's a melodic, blues-y, jaunty and slightly staccato number that is also clearly a pop song, and really quite an enjoyable one. The moment it all comes together for me is the middle 8, and that build back into the final chorus.
When I met you I was blown to pieces
Heart all over the floor...
Ever since you put me back together
I can't believe, can't believe it (UNH!)
Look what I found! (WOO!)
Somebody who loves me! (COME ON!)
There's something absolutely delightful about the line "look what I found, somebody who loves me" - as though she never could've imagined it in her wildest dreams. Strangely enough that's probably more true of Gaga than it is of Ally, and Look What I Found really feels in every way, from the "live" instrumentation to the Mariah-inflected vocal runs, like it could be the blueprint for a future Gaga record during a more exciting "real music" phase than whatever Joanne ended up being. All things considered, a heavily underrated song and a bit of a gem (sultry? you be the judge!).
26 · Sexxx Dreams · from "Artpop"
We're already at the point where every song feels like a level-up from the last. Here we go with our first entry from Artpop, the possibly-misunderstood-or-possibly-fairly-maligned-but-definitely-highly-bloated-and-maximalist subject of a very entertaining recent sync listen here on Moopy. Sexxx Dreams is quite an intricately constructed song built around a call-and-response, where she sings one line to her partner and the following to the subject of her dreams - you can hear the lady herself explain it
here at 3:15. I remember feeling at first like the chorus in particular was a touch MESSY, with the "YOU. WERE. IN. THEM." chant disrupting the flow of the main hook, but I've come to think it actually makes sense - the whole song is about the torment between loving someone but being unfaithful, during sleep, and never being able to fully enjoy either affair without feeling like something is just a bit wrong. The construction of the song, that feeling that something is a bit "off" and the back-and-forth, really backs up the theme (FROM BEHIND).
Of course, the generous climax to the whole thing comes with Gaga's sloppy bottom confession moment in the middle 8, before that gloriously 80s power chorus comes crashing back in like a top who you
thought was done, but who has a few more thrusts in him (and indeed, in you) yet.