Bothered, Bewildered, and Bewitched

Cheek to Cheek

The upcoming album collaboration between jazz legend Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga finally has a set release dates after being constantly pushed up in true Gaga fashion (ARTPOP was supposed to be released in early spring 2013 not, early November).

Gaga's first Thanksgiving Special proved with the release of the EP A Very Gaga Holiday that Gaga could do admirable covers of jazz standards. Any true fan of Gaga knows her love for jazz, with album tracks “Brown Eyes” and “Speechless” showing this. There's a reason Lana Del Rey sang before her breakthrough with “Video Games” that “Stephanie you suck” calling her a fake.

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Buy "Brown Eyes"

Buy "Speechless"

When, she first started Lady Gaga did not start out as a dance diva, but instead a sultry lounge singer.

After months of saying I wouldn't be buying this Gaga release, I am know considering it. I'm still bothered by it. The release of this album will most certainly put an end to the promotion of ARTPOP or as some critics deemed it ARTFLOP. I think that's a little dramatic. It had a strong first sales week, was certified gold, and sold about the same as Madonna's last studio set MDNA. Of course people called that a failure as well.

It most certainly was not on as point as Born This Way, but that album sold over a million copies in the space of week egged on by a download price of one dollar on Amazon. It's not a fair comparison. If you see ARTPOP in stores you know

it has a hefty price tag. I think it's $17, compared to a high of $14.

The tragedy of ending the promotion of ARTPOP is that there are hits on it. The ratchet “Jewels N Drugs” featuring Twista, T.I., and Too $hort deserves a release to hip-hop stations and “Gypsy” could easily be the follow up to mega-smash “Edge of Glory”. The hits are there. “G.U.Y.” as fabulous as it is, was just too sexual for Top Forty radio fare. Her record label needs to keeping pushing the album forward. Katy Perry's team didn't stop with the underwhelming (By 'underwhelming' I mean underwhelming in compared to other Katy Perry hits) performance of “Birthday”, they pushed “This Is How We Do” on the radio. And, God only knows how they managed that trick.

Buy "G.U.Y."

Buy "Jewels N Drugs"

Buy "Gypsy"

Gaga is queen, though. When ARTPOP was released I went out that morning at eight, the minute Target opened with a good friend who is also obsessed with Gaga so we could jam out to ARTPOP together. We were both hard core judged by the cashier and that's okay.

Personally, I would have settled with “The Lady is a Tramp” being Gaga's and Bennet's only collaboration. But, I say whatever, it's happening and it is in the works. I am not really a fan of Mr. Bennet's voice, but he's a living legend, and a living legend deserves our respect. I know my Great Aunt absolutely adores him and his voice. So, the man knows what he's doing in his respective field.

Gaga has claimed that this album is going to consist of covers of standards. I hope that she is lying. I hope were going to have new jazz inspired Gaga material. She said ARTPOP was going to be a dual disc album one side being “ART” and the other side being “POP”. We all know she changed her mind on that. According to wikipedia confirmed tracks include “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”, “Cheek to Cheek”, “It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”, “Lush Life”, “Sophisticated Lady”, and single “Anything Goes”.

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Let's just start with “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”. Your really going to cover mother fucker Cher? That's your plan. Let me slap both of you in your face. Cher is a living legend in a way that Tony Bennet cannot understand. Somebody stop them. I'm bewildered and I don't even have a firm grasp on what that word means. 

As for these other songs, there were hyperlinks to Wikipedia pages on them, I did not click on them. I am however intrigued by “Sophisticated Lady” and “Lush Life”. These titles just sound fantastic. My ambivalence towards “It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)” is so strong. I'm not here for the word “swing” in the title of any modern song unless it's a parody. I don't know if they think this is a Bette Midler album, but I'm not here for this song. We shall see, though. Mark the 23rd on your calendars. It's already on mine.

They have released one single that has topped the “Jazz Singles” chart. I am not even sure if this exists. But, listen to “Anything Goes” below if you want to know how classicist they're going with this album. I hate to admit that I'm bewitched by it, but I am. It might just be the fact that Asia's in the music video or it might be the fact that it's actually good. I'm really not sure.

This article is really just to psych me into wanting to buy this, but if you really want to know if I got. Check me out on twitter on the 23rd. If I buy it, I most certainly will tweet about it.

Buy "Anything Goes"

Are you going to buy Cheek to Cheek?