Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 30
  2. Negative: 0 out of 30
Buy Now
Buy on
  1. Q Magazine
    Jan 7, 2014
    60
    The melodies here are fine, they do a job, but nothing backs up Gag's Warholian rhetoric or scales the barmy heights of Bad Romance. [Jan 2014, p.116]
  2. 60
    While it’s stronger than the messy ‘Born This Way’, Artpop feels little more culture-quaking than a good collection of fun, silly, well-crafted pop songs.
  3. 60
    Her latest offering, however, lacks the key component that made the bizarre spectacles that accompanied her other albums slightly less irritating--consistently good pop songs.
  4. Nov 14, 2013
    60
    Not a great pop album, then, but certainly the product of a great pop star.
  5. Nov 14, 2013
    60
    For better and for worse, Artpop meets the mandate (of cranking up the cray). It's a bizarre album of squelchy disco (plus a handful of forays into R&B) that aspires to link gallery culture and radio heaven, preferring concepts to choruses.
  6. Nov 14, 2013
    60
    For all of Lady Gaga’s talking points, the fusion of art and pop has resulted in a lot of familiar dance-pop--more artful for its campiness than its musical innovation.
  7. Nov 11, 2013
    60
    ARTPOP wants to hide that it doesn’t have much to say.
  8. Nov 11, 2013
    60
    She remains singularly compelling and lovable as a celebrity, even if her records don't always match up to her outsized persona. Even at their worst, they only prove that the art is sometimes unworthy of the artist.
  9. Throwaways (“Jewels n’ Drugs”) and power-ballad (“DOPE”) digressions weigh heavy on the pacing, but the arch “Mary Jane Holland” and “Swine” occupy livelier turf.
  10. Nov 10, 2013
    60
    It's no instant classic, then, but neither is it the calamity that some have foreseen, being a typically mixed Gaga outing with some ludicrous highs, questionable digressions (Jewels 'N' Drugs, in which three rappers add little to the mix; or Donatella, a charmless ode to the equally charmless Versace supremo) and plenty of not-unpleasant filler.
  11. Nov 7, 2013
    60
    It's a decent, if flawed, pop album, its good bits good enough to keep her filling stadiums as big as the gulf between her ideas and her music.
  12. 60
    Musically, it's pretty much the standard modern electro fare familiar from dozens of contemporaries, from Kylie to Britney. The dubstep riffs are more tortured in places, but when David Guetta and will.i.am are involved in a track's production--as with the bullishly shallow "Fashion!"--you're not straying from the mainstream.
  13. Nov 22, 2013
    50
    This is two albums in a row now that were basically a bit boring, and she needs to sort it out soonish please.
  14. Nov 14, 2013
    50
    For all that firepower, the music is catchy but tame--she's cozying up to chart-topping formulas rather than disrupting them.
  15. Nov 14, 2013
    50
    ARTPOP is a decidedly patchy ‘Just Dance’-less disappointment.
  16. Nov 11, 2013
    50
    That refusal to experiment as wildly as she once did reads as fear, and a pop star who’s afraid ends up sounding like the once-weird Lady Gaga does on ARTPOP: boring and normal.
  17. Nov 11, 2013
    50
    Artpop is the third album by pop recording artist Lady Gaga. Therefore it has similarities to her previous work but is inherently different because it is a different album.
  18. Nov 7, 2013
    50
    There are moments where she reminds us that she can still do wonderful things, but for the most part, Artpop shows us an artist who is trying to do too much all at once.
  19. Nov 14, 2013
    42
    For as flamboyant as she is, Gaga’s never lacked sincerity; ARTPOP’s lack of substantial personal connection and its tenuous grasp on reality makes it a tough record to like.
  20. Nov 11, 2013
    40
    With Artpop, Gaga sounds confused, disengaged, and at its worst, just downright bored.
  21. Nov 7, 2013
    40
    Throughout ARTPOP signifier upon signifier is piled on top of sometimes brilliant melodies, creating enough room for breathless readings of Gaga’s ‘art’ certainly, but failing on the more basic level as engaging pop music.
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3397 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Nov 11, 2013
    10
    This record is amazing. I can't stand the mixed or negative reviews this album gets when compared to the artistical "crap" that was releasedThis record is amazing. I can't stand the mixed or negative reviews this album gets when compared to the artistical "crap" that was released by Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus or anybody else. The entire album is written, (co-)produced and "done" by the artist not by a dozen of different songwriters or producers per track.

    ARTPOP is a truely epic pop release this year, far beyond every other release by a "high class artist".
    Full Review »
  2. Nov 11, 2013
    10
    An amazing album from an amazingly talented artist.

    Lady Gaga proves once again that she is one of the biggest players in the world of pop
    An amazing album from an amazingly talented artist.

    Lady Gaga proves once again that she is one of the biggest players in the world of pop music. Excellent work.
    Full Review »
  3. Nov 11, 2013
    10
    After 2 years Lady Gaga is back and better than ever! This album includes hints of all kinds of different genres but it all adds up to aAfter 2 years Lady Gaga is back and better than ever! This album includes hints of all kinds of different genres but it all adds up to a perfect combination of ART and POP! Some songs you can dance forever to (Venus and Aura), some are some nice slower songs (Dope), and then there's songs that just get you all fired up (G.U.Y and Sexxx Dreams)! Zedd's touch to songs like Aura and Sexxx Dreams is just perfect! And as always DJ White Shadow adds his perfection on songs like Gypsy and ARTPOP. In general the album is well rounded with a little of everything that creates an album worth putting on repeat for hours. This is a definite buy for your music collection!
    My most favorite songs: G.U.Y, Sexxx Dreams, Swine, Donatella, Venus, Aura, Do What U Want, MANiCURE, and the rest of the album! :D
    Full Review »