Feature Friday: Eh, Eh – Lady Gaga

Call it a throwback. Call it a reach for obscurity. This “deep cut,” as it were, reeks of the earliest stages of Lady Gaga, who had just barely stopped going by “Stefani” at this point in her career.

It’s easy to forget how many good tracks came out of Lady Gaga’s debut album “The Fame,” and for good reason. The album as a whole was a banger, and a hell of a start to her prolific career. Songs like Just Dance, Paparazzi, Love Game and Pokerface all came from this album (and let’s not even get started on the deluxe edition “The Fame Monster” that gave us Bad Romance and more).

That said, let’s not forget “Eh, Eh.” It always caught my attention for some reason, even with everything else going on in her exploding career. A song that tells you the thesis in its opening line will always win my kudos.

“Boy we’ve had a real good time, and I wish you the best on your way…“

The beauty in this song is its simplicity. It has an upbeat calypso vibe to match her acceptance that it’s time to move on. “There’s nothing else I can say, eh, eh.”

It’s not happy, it’s not sad. It is what it is, and rather than struggle and fight for something and risk resentment in the process, she’s gracefully bowing out and getting on with her life with her head held high.

This is a rare moment in pop when the solution is an amicable split that doesn’t almost destroy the teller of the story. So much of music is about hating a former lover, or being crushed that it’s not going to work, but not this song. Melancholy, is a fitting term. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, things really are just that simple.