A round-up of Lady Gaga leaks

Lady Gaga's third album, Born This Way, isn't due 'til the new year but with anticipation riding higher than a unicyclist pedalling across a tightrope over the Grand Canyon, a lot of discarded tracks, demos, leaks and fakes are finding their way onto the internet. You can find dozens on Youtube just by searching for "Gaga New Song 2010" - but here's a selection of the more interesting ones.

Reloaded

Apparently recorded with Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins in the same session as Telephone. It's well documented, of course, that Telephone was intended for Britney Spears [you can hear Britney's test vocal here] before Gaga re-recorded it last year.

This track also bears the hallmarks of a demo by a songwriter for hire. The beat is fierce, but it's just a loop. Where there are backing vocals at all, they sound like placeholders.

On the other hand, the lyrics are fully formed with a intriguing play on being shot by cupid's arrow - her lover has "blown it" and needs to "reload it". I think you can work out the sluttier interpretation for yourself.

Intriguingly, the rap section contains a backwards lyric which, when played forwards, sounds like "Bad Romance don't lean on me".

Filthy Pop

Aside from the amazing title and the scuzzy bassline, this is a bit of a let-down. It comes across as a lesser version of LoveGame, with Gaga delivering a mannered, Hollaback Girl rap: "Spin that shit, spin it til it's platinum". What keeps you listening is the scattershot structure, where voices and musical elements fade in and out of focus like images in a kaleidoscope. Another example of Gaga's genius with breaking pop formats.

You And I

Okay, this isn't technically a leak, as it's been performed at nearly every show on the current incarnation of the Monster's Ball tour. A sure-fire shoo-in for the new album, this picks up where Speechless left off, adds a measure of bourbon, three shots of Elton, a firecracker guitar solo and a garnish of What's Going On?

The lyrics: "It's been two years since I let you go / I couldn't listen to a joke or rock and roll," are apparently about her ex-boyfriend Luc Carl, who was also the inspiration behind Paparazzi and Boys Boys Boys it says here.

Living On The Radio

SOUND THE ALARMS it's the archetypal "my lonely life on the road is so lonely and I am so sad and living out of a suitcase made of my own tears" third album song.

Except it's not, because our little Fame Monster is quite happy measuring out her existence in air miles, just so long as "my songs are on the radio". And now that Gaga's got all the attention she ever craved, she can even afford to poke fun at her own image: "I sure would miss all the caviar, the champagne and the sold-out shows." Nice.

Super Lover

Actually, this one's not Lady Gaga at all. It's the debut single by an artist called Starshell who has been told to sound a bit like Lady Gaga. A snippet of her song leaked on the internet a couple of months ago and was subsequently attributed to Lady Gaga but it was ALL JUST A BIG MISTAKE, HONEST.

Second Time Around

After this one leaked in July 2009, Lady Gaga took to Twitter to say: "I wrote 'second time around' recently for a current recording artist. I don't know why people insist on leaking my work."

An interesting exercise in by-the-book pop balladeering, this song shows how carefully the tracks on Lady Gaga's own records are selected to create a thematic, narrative, individual body of work.

There are plenty more "leaks" to track down if you're keen - and the Gagapedia is a great source of information on their provenance (it was invaluable in writing this blog post).

Let me know if you see or hear anything else that piques your interest.

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