Quite possibly the final guilty pleasure of the year (for me) and the first guilty pleasure of the new year (for you). Out on January 12th is the new album ‘The Fame’ courtesy of Lady GaGa, described as ‘a slutty Gwen Stefani’ so if that doesn’t grab your attention nothing will. There’s actually a lot more to this latest pop starlet than you might think mainly because she comes armed with songwriting credentials that list Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls as recipients of her talents.

The album ties itself to a very formulaic mast, there’s plenty of euro chic friendly synthesiser work and breathy innuendo laden vocals that lean out and deliver in the most predictable ways a la swooping filters and somewhat icy vocalisation. Lyrically expect nothing in the intellectual ballpark, in fact if anything be grateful that she can string a sentence together.

However…

Never let it be said that a cheesy lyric about implied fucking should hold someone back because not only is she penning tunes for others but she has also managed to wangle herself a spot in the BBC’s Sound of 2009 listing, and in fairness I have to confess there are some relatively sharp pop moments locked away inside this release. Once you get past the lyrical foibles like “let’s have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” (I mean really!). There are somewhat self assured knowledgeable moments of fame itself, Lady GaGa demonstrates a knack of seeing the world of fame from both sides as the recipient (or voyeur) of such idolatry while understanding what it is like to be the devoted fan (on tracks like ‘Paparazzi’).

I suspect there is a sufficient gap in the market for Lady GaGa right now, after all she ticks the boxes. The music is undeniably commercial and chart/ringtone friendly. The big hitters like Britney have stalled somewhat (‘now that’s what I call miming’) with their recent releases and the likes of Kylie are drawing breath and bringing nothing new to the table.

Keep your ears open, I suspect you will be hearing more from this one.