Chromatica marks Lady Gaga’s long-awaited and inevitable return to pop music, coming off the wildly successful run of A Star is Born and her current residency in Las Vegas.
Her sixth studio album brings us back to when we first met Gaga in 2008 with The Fame; you almost expect her to sing “cherry cherry boom boom” in the middle of a track. The album feels as though it was created for the fans—but it also feels like it was created for a different world, one in which we can dance and be together clubbing, not the reality that is today. But maybe the album can be a silver lining, a reason to dance and lose yourself, even if just for a moment.
Chromatica was meant to be released back in April, pushed because of coronavirus and the global turmoil in which the United States and wider world found itself in. Lady Gaga pushed the release to May 29th, organizing the ‘One World: Together At Home’ global concert special in the meantime, which featured a myriad of beloved artists to raise awareness of the virus. In an interview for Apple Music with Zane Lowe, Lady Gaga said on the pandemic and why she pushed the release, “How can I use my humanity to focus on something that I believe to be infinitely more important than what even I feel that I have been through?”
Well, Chromatica has finally arrived, and it is fun, there is no denying that. Singles off the album, “Stupid Love” and “Rain on Me,” were met with immediate praise and streaming success, with “Rain on Me” even debuting at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. This is her first Billboard #1 since “Shallow” in 2018. Ariana Grande sounds incredible on this track, melding with Gaga into one superhuman popstar, both voices working in a way only Gaga could have predicted.
While all of Lady Gaga’s albums are self-reflective, something she seems to pride herself in, this stands out as such. In the same interview with Zane Lowe, Lady Gaga reflects on the journey that led her to Chromatica and her own mental health struggles. She even surprised herself with the fact that album sounds so upbeat synth-pop, so electronic despite its often heavy material.
The album is separated by three flags in the sand, musical markers of separate experiences that Gaga seems to have in her own personal journey. These instrumental interludes do provide good landmarks in an album that may have otherwise fallen victim to monotony, each song clocking in at around 3 minutes with no ballads to break it up. After 2016’s Joanne, the album that shows off her pure, naked vocals more than any other and one of my personal favorites, perhaps Gaga wanted to rest her wailing voice and create something different – the fact that she can bounce around genre so seamlessly is the reason she is so successful, after all. The fact that we can still feel her pain and connect with it here, despite the lack of a simple piano back track, is a true feat.
“911” seems the perfect example of this personal outpour, coming towards the middle of the album in the second section of Gaga’s universe. Gaga is here reckoning with her experience taking antipsychotic medication and pushing to get through, asking for help. The song itself sounds heavily influenced by euro-club music, technologic. Like Daft Punk with more depth.
“Chromatica II” into “911” also gives us what is hands-down the best moment on the album; a seamless meld of a string arrangement directly into a techno bass drop as we are directed to switch gears, the build-up feeling almost euphoric. Chromatica II is also the strongest section of the album.
“Sour Candy” with BLACKPINK is in this section as well, another highlight of the album. This collaboration is destiny, a dream on the dance floor of a sticky club. BLACKPINK and Lady Gaga prove a perfect team, though BLACKPINK does outshine Gaga. Perhaps she knows this, as their feature does seem longer than most.
Chromatica III wraps up the album, and it sounds like an afterthought. “Sine from Above,” one of the final songs on the album featuring Elton John, is one of the worst. He sounds like Basshunter, that Swedish singer/DJ who was popular in the early 2000s and was certainly not known for his voice. Elton sounds dated, his voice doesn’t mesh with Gaga’s and the slower sound of the track doesn’t help. His image, his style, his general disposition, all of that makes sense for Chromatica, but the song doesn’t reflect that. It is the only song I’d skip every time.
“Babylon” wraps it up with as pure a Gaga as it can get. The song is very “Applause,” an homage to the neglected child of Gaga’s career, ArtPop. She sings about gossip, she tells you how to move, and you are reminded why you listen to her in the first place.
This album is a vision, one cohesive journey through Gaga’s brain as she explores her own pain and dances to it all. While it is not perfect, it is pure, unadulterated Gaga, which in my opinion comes pretty close.
Victory Lapped: “Sour Candy,” “911,” “Babylon”
Benched: “Sine from Above,” “Plastic Doll”