Lady Gaga: Chromatica | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Playing to your strengths, or tugging on old rope? Reinventing the wheel, or going back to your roots? Playing it safe, or embellishing a solid track record? When an artist as ubiquitous as Lady Gaga releases a full-length work, the analysis offered by the commentariat can be, usually, divided into two. Either it’s “disappointing”, “been there – done that”, “past it” or she is lauded for using her nous as a songwriter and an ear for a good, thumping dance tune to produce a decent record.

So, where has Stefanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta landed with her fifth full-length album of original tunes? Smack bang in a glittery, colourful disco that has bangers wall-to-wall. If you like to move, you will move. If you don’t, your hips won’t consult your brain and they will just start without you. Gaga’s career has been firmly rooted in producing pop tunes that are just so many iron filings to an electro-magnet, Top 50 chart. Before her own success, she was a jobbing songwriter for the likes of Britney Spears, New Kids On The Block, Fergie and The Pussycat Dolls. Her association with the Swedish based producer Red One further opened up the worldwide charts to her style of power pop.

After the somewhat oddly personal detour into Shania Twain territory with her previous album Joanne, Gaga is clearly on the same track that brought her massive success with her debut album (The Fame/Monster) and the social justice statement follow-up Born This Way. Even her third album, the oddly muddled Artpop had strong dance entries, so it’s not surprising this is where she has decided to pitch her 2020 entry. (Perhaps winning an Academy Award for Shallow, the duet with Bradley Cooper from A Star Is Born, brought her a shot of confidence?) However, if you are going over old ground, does it just come off as stale and boring?

Personally, no, I don’t believe it is. This is clearly playing to your strengths and right now the world is going to hell in a hand-cart, at speed, down an incline, so having something familiar to grasp on to and keep the endorphins coursing through a body racked by “breaking news” induced adrenalin shocks is probably a damn good idea. Chromatica is series of electro-disco power anthems matched with some good-old-fashioned house and even a bit of drum'n'bass for good measure. This album’s lead single Stupid Love is just joyous, simple as that. After a COVID-19 hiatus of a couple of months, the second single Rain On Me accompanies the album’s release and Gaga shares the vocals with one of the “next-gen” pop princesses, Ariana Grande, which trucks along at a decent clip. Throughout the album Gaga, along with her lead producers BloodPop (aka Michael Tucker) and Benjamin Rice, doesn’t take the foot off the accelerator- Fun Tonight, for instance, might start off slow but it even ups the ante to at least a decent mid-tempo mini-anthem. Along for the ride are some stellar names in the DJ/producer world – Madeon, Axwell, Tchami, Burns, Skrillex (yes, really), and breaking that line of mononyms is the grandfather of the Swedish dominance of the world’s pop charts, Max Martin.

The album is broken into three sections each heralded by something out of left-field, a chamber string arrangement under the album’s title that also leans into another of Gaga’s strengths – being theatrical and camp. And speaking of camp, Sour Candy is another one of her collaborations, this time with K-Pop girl group BLACKPINK which strays around territory Gaga’s prime inspiration Madonna owns, so perhaps it isn’t as effective as it sounded. The album reaches its zenith with a collaboration that you might not have expected – Sine from Above with… wait for it… Elton John. It promises to be super-camp, and it doesn’t disappoint. Finishing off is a positive piece of New York ball scene-cum-gospel choir, Babylon, which is also theatrical as a red velvet curtain, complete with Gaga chanting as opposed to singing hard.

Gaga’s vocals are not overly challenged, she knows she has a strong voice that can punch a hole in a brick-wall and doesn’t hold back, even with the robotic 911 which is more about her relationship with her various medical conditions and injuries than it is about the state of life in modern America.

If we are going into the darkness then it’s probably good to have something to anaesthetise the pain and while sitting in a circle with an acoustic guitar might stimulate the inner thoughts, a revolution happens when feet, legs and hips move. Chromatica isn’t a textbook for fighting against the nastiness of the neo-liberal 21st century, but getting your happiness on helps lift your head up out of the dirt and looking to the mythical planet “Chromatica” that Gaga has created, where equality reigns, peace guides the planets and love rules the stars.

- Blair Martin.
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