Lady Gaga - Chromatica ALBUM REVIEW

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Lady Gaga is an icon. I’m not the biggest Lady Gaga fan on the planet, but she was pretty innovative for bringing the electropop that came and went throughout the 2010s to the modern mainstream. Personally, my favorite album of hers is Joanne, her foray into country-pop and rock which eventually turned into her time in A Star is Born, which is such a great film and showcased Gaga’s voice and acting range incredibly well. Now, after spending nearly seven years away from the genre that made her famous, Lady Gaga’s return to the dance-pop scene is here, titled Chromatica. The singles leading up to this, “Stupid Love,” “Rain on Me” with Ariana Grande, and “Sour Candy” with K-pop group BLACKPINK, were relatively okay, with “Sour Candy” being my favorite. They didn’t really change my opinion on my hype for Chromatica, so I had a reason to believe that there could be a big chance of this new record being her best yet. So, is Chromatica a return to form? Let’s find out.

Chromatica is a dance-pop record, a type of genre that Gaga is very good at. Sadly, this feels like it should’ve been made before Joanne, as a follow-up to ARTPOP or Born This Way. Before I go any further, I’ll say that Chromatica isn’t a bad album by any means. I think that the “Chromatica” interludes are very majestic if short. They’re interludes, anyway. “Alice” is a great opening track, “Babylon” is a great closer, and “Sine from Above” with Elton John is a lot better than I thought it was gonna be, even if that breakbeat ending was AWFUL and damn near ruined the song. The production is very overblown, and that’s a good thing and a bad thing. It’s mainly produced by BloodPop, with contributions from Swedish House Mafia and Skrillex. Based on those names alone, it’s a VERY electronic album.

The biggest problem of Chromatica with me is that it seems very empty. Outside of the singles and the tracks I mentioned, the rest of the tracks blended in together and felt like a road that was already traveled on. Gaga’s influence is showing on this new generation of artists like Dua Lipa or Charli XCX, and they’re pushing the boundaries of these sounds. While Gaga is a very talented artist, it just feels like I’ve heard Chromatica before from different artists.

Chromatica is a predictable album. If you know Lady Gaga’s music, you know exactly what this is gonna be: loud and groovy dance-pop. Chromatica is not a bad album, but it feels too generic, which is a word I’d never describe for Gaga. It feels like after Joanne and A Star is Born, she felt obligated to return to this sound. I hope that she returns to the soft-rock sounds that made me like her so much, but Chromatica is worth a shot if you’re a Gaga fan.


6/10


Stream Chromatica here

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