Mechanical Animal: Lady Gaga's Insane Album Cover Is the Best Part of 'Born This Way'
Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" is very closely associated with the motorcycle road movie Easy Rider. That's the primary clue we're working with today in our investigation into why Lady Gaga decided to make her Born This Way album cover a strange mix of a calendar hanging in a mechanic's office crossed with the snarling jaguar on the cover of Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure. (Unless she's paying homage to Judas Priest, repping for the small segment of the population that emerged from the birth canal with handlebars, or making a really bold statement about other pop stars being mechanical.)
Evidently some of Gaga's fans don't care for the cover, but it's our favorite part of Born This Way yet by a long shot. Little Monsters are so upset, there's actually a theory circulating that Gaga is betraying her fans three times (and we thought Kanye West had a Jesus Complex!), and that the cover she tweeted is a fake.
Here are their primary complaints:
It Looks Like it Cost $2 and a Photoshop Intern to Make: "Love you Gaga-always will but this album cover is just........cheap looking," tweeted Cristink3. "Gaga I really love u but this cover is awful, very mediocre and unprofessional...I'm in shock. Please do not dissapoint your fans," added Iotiprego.
It Lacks a Certain... Je Ne Sais Quoi: "wait, is this serious? with all due respect, i expected something ... classier?" complained Cglink. "I think this looks like random fan ar," Alan_PB wrote.
It Doesn't Seem to Relate to the Music: "Gaga I'm so disappointed ! I love u but this cover is not pop, rock or even 70's metal. It sucks. :S," sniffed Thisislordl. "No graphic designer in their right mind would approve of such an atrocious font, and not only that, It has an awful metallic- looking bevel and emboss! It is terrible," wrote bleakc.
Gaga tweeted the artwork with a note that referenced a "highway unicorn" and implored fans to "'get your hot rods ready to rumble." Make of that what you will. But the good news is plenty of people are making something out of that ludicrously incredible album cover, like Rolling Stone did when Adam Lambert released his similarly wackadoo For Your Entertainment artwork. Gawker put together a small gallery of great Born This Way parodies, and we highly recommend you check that out (Jessica Simpson meets the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile!).
