Sep 6

Sep 6 Lady Gaga - Chromatica

Lady Gaga
Chromatica
Release Date: May 29th, 2020
Label: Streamline/Interscope

Review by Jared Stossel

Lady Gaga is one of our generation’s greatest performers. Even though she’s able to sell out stadiums around the world, I still don’t think that she gets enough credit. Then again, I don’t think any female performer gets the same kind of accolades and praise that their male counterparts do, but that’s for another article. Lady Gaga, the pop star persona of singer-songwriter Stefani Germanotta, has been taking the world by storm since she burst onto the scene in 2008 with the release of her career-launching debut album The Fame (later released as The Fame Monster). Gaga only has five albums, including the one we’re reviewing today, 2020’s Chromatica, but you’d think she’s been doing this for even longer. Every time Gaga releases an album, it becomes an event. It sweeps pop culture and words like “Joanne” and “Chromatica” become part of the cultural zeitgeist overnight. Chromatica, released back in 2020 as the pandemic was ramping up, is a return to the dance floor, a bright and booming dance-pop album that harkens back to the earliest days of Lady Gaga, when electronic music was permeated the pop music membrane and becoming an essential ingredient in mainstream pop music.

This time around, though, everything feels bigger. Lady Gaga isn’t just a famous popstar; she’s a larger than life household name In addition the success of Joanne, a stripped-down, back-to-basics album that pulls elements of folk, country, rock, and pop into one authentically unique package. She’s made and released music with the legendary Tony Bennett. She starred in a critically acclaimed remake of A Star Is Born, with performances on television that lit up the world alongside her co-star Bradley Cooper. She produced the finale track to this year’s highest grossing film, Top Gun: Maverick. She brought the wildly crazy story of Patrizia Reggiani to life in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, and is set to star alongside Joaquin Phoenix in a musical sequel to Joker, where she will bring her own interpretation of the Harley Quinn character to life. That last sentence sounds made up, but it’s completely true. Gaga has been making waves throughout the entirety of the entertainment industry over the last several years. On Chromatica, we find her refining the dance-pop sound that made her an international superstar and distilling them down to sixteen powerful and cathartic tracks that come in just under the 45-minute mark. In an interview with Apple Music, Gaga went on to say, “This music actually healed me”.

The album is technically separated into three parts, each new section marked by instrumental pieces labeled Chromatica I, II and III. The film influence is particularly apparent here, as each of these introductory pieces or album breaks feels like the world opening up in front of us, the curtains opening on the silver screen, Dorothy taking her first steps into Oz as the world changes from sepia to a brilliant Technicolor set design. Songs like “Alice” reference the Lewis Carroll stories with lyrics like “My name isn’t Alice, but I’ll keep looking for Wonderland.” She’s lost, trying to pull herself out of this hole and into a better place, and Chromatica is that journey to a better tomorrow.

“Stupid Love” and “Rain on Me” feel like the disco-pop hits that could have been pulled from Born This Way; they’re just as big in scope, with the latter featuring an exemplary duet from fellow songwriter and vocalist Ariana Grande.“Free Woman” is one of the most cathartic moments on Chromatica; this song is a declaration that she will not be held down, no matter how dark or harmful the world can be. She has spoken before about being sexually assaulted by a producer in the industry, how it fucked up her world, and how the experience changed her outlook. The song is anthemic, an authoritative statement to the world that she will never be held down by this sickness again; she is a free woman. “Fun Tonight” is provides another moment of cleansing, this time with subject matter tackling the end of a relationship over a whispery house beat.

“911” is punctuated by a house beat and a reverb-tinged vocal line that builds up into a four-to-the-floor chorus whilemaking references to an antipsychotic medication she takes. It’s a song about keeping things at bay, knowing that at any moment it could come undone, and the process of fighting against your mind in the darkest of times. “Plastic Doll” and “Sour Candy” (the latter featuring the massively popular K-pop act BLACKPINK) are similar in nature, using objects like Barbie dolls and hard candy as a metaphor for herself. The latter track features a chorus that proclaims, “I’m hard on the outside/But if you give me time/Then I could make time for your love”. The tracks are playful in nature, light-hearted pop tracks that find her along this journey of self-discovery, telling us who she is and where’s she’s headed. “Enigma” finds Gaga giving one of her best vocal performances, while “Replay” finds her at a vulnerable yet defiantly powerful state. By the time we hit “Chromatica III”, we can see that Lady Gaga is heading away from the darkness.

Chromatica’s strongest moment comes in the form of “Sine From Above”, a song that pays tribute to the music and the “sine wave” that Gaga proclaimed allowed her to heal herself and dance her way out of the album. As the album wraps up, she’s stronger than ever, with Sir Elton John delivering an enticing guest vocal performance as she dances her way out of the madness. “1000 Doves” releases any residual feelings of sadness, while “Babylon” closes out Chromatica in an authoritative form. It features the iconic monotone vocal styling that we first heard on tracks like “Born This Way”, with Gaga demanding her listeners to “Strut it out, walk a mile/Serve it ancient city style/Talk it out, babble on/Battle for your life, Babylon!”

Chromatica feels more like a movie than an album. It has a clear beginning, middle and end, and yet it’s not quite a concept album like Queen’s A Night at The Opera or Green Day’s American Idiot. It’s one of the most intriguing listens I’ve had all year, and one of the better pop albums I’ve heard in the last several. Little Monsters, rejoice.