Review: "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga

The unlikely combination of early Goldfrapp's glam-infused freak-pop and Peaches' overtly sexual content and performance, is there a better pop song/video combination this year than Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance"?  The song itself is a force to be reckoned with, propelled forward by a driving beat sure to keep any body moving, and with clever yet simple lyrics that interplay perfectly with Lady Gaga's status as a one-woman, no bullshit fashionista.  It's like Madonna, but with genuine songwriting talent.

The video is a futuristic pop brothel-by-way-of-sex-slavery, as if designed by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Stanley Kubrick's slightly more hyperkinetic, but equally cold and distant offspring, if either one of them were a pure pop connoisseur.  After the song's bridge ("I want your love / I want your revenge / I want your love / I don't wanna be friends") the video kicks into overload for the final push to the end, with Gaga donning an ultra revealing red suit and pulling off some simply amazing choreography.  It doesn't help that from the bridge onward she looks hotter than she's ever looked before, and sounds amazing, with layer upon layer of vocal track riding high atop a beat that has now fully realized its potential, and rushing forward to its very last moment.  Amazing.