Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 110 Best Albums of the 2010s, representing a varied cross-section of artists, genres, and styles. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album in the list or for easier navigation, view the full introduction & album index here.

LADY GAGA | Born This Way
Interscope (2011)
Selected by Mark J. Marraccini

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Born This Way is peak “hands in the air” Lady Gaga—her last dance with unbridled bombast before she aimed to elevate her art. The questionable Robert John “Mutt” Lange-produced “You and I” aside, Born This Way is still, almost ten years later, a pulsing concoction of pop, electro, rock and dance that reminds us of when Gaga was our provocatively weird queen of the night and vocal purveyor of self-empowerment anthems and sexual freedom. She’s never been as nakedly ambitious or gloriously unfocused as she sounded on Born and it’s clear now, after 2016’s earthier Joanne album and her Oscar-nominated role in A Star Is Born, she won’t ever be this untamed again.

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