She's already accomplished pretty much everything on this astral plane — you know, emerging from swimming pools while flanked by Great Danes, murdering her boyfriend, escaping from prison, offending the Catholic church. So, in her new video for "Born This Way," it sort of makes sense that Lady Gaga has taken her talents to an entirely new dimension: a "multiverse" of starry space births and snarling specters, new life forms and centuries-old demons. And sparkly unicorns. You can't forget about them.
So, yes, "Born This Way" (which premiered on Monday, February 28) is quite the spectacle. Part space odyssey, part Creationist yarn, it involves the formation of not just an entirely new universe, but an entirely new race of humanity, too. It sort of makes sense, it sort of doesn't, but that 100 percent doesn't really matter much. This is Gaga at her most fabulous, her most out-there, her most, well, Gaga.
Beginning with a long voiceover (the "Manifesto of Mother Monster," as Gaga puts it) that drops phrases like "the mitosis of the future" and "the eternal mother hovered in the multiverse" like they're practically weightless, "Born This Way" stretches a tale of astral rebirth — which appears to be a central theme of the Born This Way album — over seven minutes, recalling everything from the early "Superman" films to the late Alexander McQueen's final collection, doing so effortlessly and oh-so-seriously, in the way we've come to expect from Gaga.
There is haute couture and barely there underwear, a guest appearance by the so-called "Zombie Boy" who showed up in an earlier clip, a whole lot of oozing afterbirth, some fierce dance moves and even a bit of gunplay. The basic premise seems to be good vs. evil, but again, that's entirely up to your interpretation. Director Nick Knight fills each frame with shades of dark and light, coloring the voids of this new world with his fashion-photographer's eye. Gaga plays it straight, even when she's delivering a whitechocolatespaceegg (shout out to Liz Phair!) while hovering above planet Earth.
It's part fantasy, part hopeful reality. It's about the future and the past (especially at clip's end, when Gaga sports Madonna's near-trademarked tooth gap), but really, all of that pales in comparison to the sheer spectacle of the thing. And that sort of makes sense, because after thoroughly dominating this world, with "Born This Way," Lady Gaga seems content to create brand-new worlds to tower over. Welcome your new overlord.
What do you think the "Born This Way" video means? Share your interpretations in the comments!
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