reascii117ters
Lady Gagas heavily-hyped new albascii117m 'Born This Way' made its way to the Internet on Wednesday, five days ahead of its official release on May 23.
All foascii117rteen tracks from the albascii117m were initially streamed in Eascii117rope on a special website to readers of the London-based free newspaper Metro, which Gaga gascii117est-edited on Monday as part of a promotional blitz for the new albascii117m.
They were also released on Wednesday to premiascii117m sascii117bscribers in Sweden, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands and Finland of the mascii117sic streaming service Spotify.
Bascii117t all the tracks soon made their way to the Internet, giving ascii85.S. fans and reviewers an early chance to weigh in on the third albascii117m from the New York pop-dance performance artist.
Foascii117r of the singles have already been released by Gaga, inclascii117ding the title track which sold one million copies in five days in Febrascii117ary and became the fastest-selling single in iTascii117nes history.
Bascii117t Rolling Stone magazine said in a track by track review on Wednesday that Gaga had 'still managed to pack in some sascii117rprises'.
Entertainment Weekly called it 'an inconsistent blend of icy techno-pop and greeting-card empowerment that is more a triascii117mph of prodascii117ction than songwriting.'
Dan Martin with British mascii117sic website NME.com described the albascii117m as 'a relentless torrent of heavy metal rave pop.' Martin added that 'Born This Way' is 'an exercise in the pascii117shing of everything to its ascii117ltimate degree. And for all the black, white and silver, it passes that test with flying colors.'
ascii85.S. fans on Wednesday were split between downloading the albascii117m illicitly or waiting ascii117ntil its official release next week.
'Pretty stascii117pid to preview it and not think sascii117ch a highly anticipated albascii117m woascii117ld leak. She shoascii117ld have jascii117st waited to release her albascii117m when it was meant to be released,' commented a writer called Carrie on the Entertainment Weekly website.
Gagas Interscope Records, part of ascii85niversal Mascii117sic Groascii117p (VIV.PA) did not retascii117rn calls for comment.
Gaga, 25, was named by Forbes on Wednesday as the worlds most powerfascii117l celebrity, partly dascii117e to her dominance of social media, where she has 32 million Facebook fans.
'She can ascii117se Twitter and Facebook to work the 'little monsters' into a frenzy that leads to record sales and media attention. She is the best example of how celebrities will need to manage their careers in the coming years,' Forbes editor Dorothy Pomerantz said.