Consumer Guide Album

Lady Gaga: Artpop [Streamline/Interscope, 2013]
"My artpop could mean anything," the title song boasts proudly. So as befits the dilemma our self-made superceleb's hype overkill and musical overproduction have gotten her into, Gaga's fourth album in five years was both grossly grotesque, as in "Swine"'s "You're just a pig inside a human body," and aptly cartoonish, long on bright, brash, overstated outlines. In "We could, we could belong together," the "we" is in fact art and pop. But this being Lady Gaga it's also S-E-X. It's "Venus" connecting rocket ships to both oysters and Uranus. It's "GUY" standing for Girl Under You. It's "Sexxx Dreams"'s sex dreams. It's songs and conceits that pop all over the place. A