Lady Gaga - Second Time Around

An old demo that might have escaped your notice...



McLovin

2011 sees the release of Lady Gaga's eagerly awaited album, Born This Way. If Bad Romance has broken your playcount record or you can recite the Telephone video word perfect ('mmm-hmm Honey B!') you might want to check out this unreleased demo from 2008. My little monster friends recently tracked down Second Time Around along with Earthquake (Then You'll Love Me). While the latter definitely feels like a work in progress, Second Time Around is a really lovely find.

Opening with a piano-led hook, the unpolished quality actually enchances the track. It allows Gaga's vocals to stand out more, demonstrating once again what a fantastic voice she has. To me it feels like the blueprint to some of the songs on The Fame, particular Paper Gangsta (that might just be because of the prominent use of pianos in both, but in any case it reminded me how good that song is!).

Written for another artist but never taken any further, it seems a shame that the song seems destined for relative obscurity. Some fans are hoping there will be some sort of 2.0-type version on the new album, but I doubt there will be. I'm treating it more as a nice surprise appetiser before the main monster Gaga-feast that will be Born This Way.