Over the past three weeks, Lady Gaga has dropped one song every week leading up to her Nov. 11 release date for ARTPOP. The past two weeks gave us the R. Kelly collaboration "Do What U Want" and the intergalactic dance track "Venus."
Today Mother Monster gives us "Dope," an almost four-minute piano-driven ballad in which she reflects on a lost love, her battle with addiction and other trifles that have caused pain in her life.
She croons, "Toast one last puff / and two last regrets / three spirits / and twelve lonely steps / Up Heaven's stairways to gold / mine myself like coal /a mountain of a soul / Each day I cry / Oh, I feel so live from living high/"
She searches for the answer to her problems and examines how much she needed this person in her life that she lost and asks for forgiveness.
"My heart would break without you," she begs. "Might not awake with out you / Been hurting low, from living high for so long / I'm sorry and I love you / Sing with me "Bell Bottom Blue" / I'll keep searching for an answer cause / I need you more than dope."
This is the most barebones and emotionally raw single we've heard from the pop start thus far on this record. Her vocal performance is a haunting and shows that her songs can stand alone without all the theatrics. The song was accompanied by artwork featuring Gaga in a boxy, cropped jacket with no pants on and bruised legs and stomach with mangled teeth. It is a fairly abrasive image but makes sense within the context of addiction.
ARTPOP is scheduled for release Nov. 8 via Interscope Records. It is the pop star's third album, the follow up to 2011's Born This Way.
Check out "Dope" for yourself here, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!
