Chromatica (2024 reappraisal)

[VoR]

Genuinely baffled by the apparent low collective opinion of this. I guess there’s no Poker Face or Bad Romance level classic on there, but I absolutely caned this record during lockdown and I still love it. I find most Gaga records to be about 60% bangers and 40% obnoxious filler, but there’s not a single skip for me on this. Is it just because SHE evidently couldn’t be arsed with it?

Also, it’s so GAY



10 Alice
09 Stupid Love
09 Rain On Me
08 Free Woman
07 Fun Tonight
09 911
08 Plastic Doll
07 Sour Candy
10 Enigma
10 Replay
11 Sine From Above
10 1000 Doves
10 Babylon

Fuck me that final stretch. You’re all MAD.

 

[GNL]

I really enjoy it. It's a strong album. It doesn't have the dizzying highs of her earlier albums for me but it is consistent throughout which you can't always say for artpop or Joanne. I do like the best stuff on those albums more than the best stuff here admittedly.

She was also clearly GOING THROUGH IT when you listen to the album and I wish that darkness leaked into the production a little more.

 

[jivafox]

All sounds like one (boring) song to me.

 

[OutSynk]

My most vivid memory regarding this era is when I was in a cab and Rain On Me came on the radio and the driver immediately changed the channel.

 

[Shoat]

It's consistent with no lows but no real highs either

Everything is 8/10, and I wouldn't skip a single track, and not a single track would make my Gaga Best Of

 

[BoysForSeles]

I think it’s a really solid effort and probably my second fave of hers.

 

[Sheena]

All sounds like one (boring) song to me.

This really. It’s just kind of there.

 

[Pipo]

My most vivid memory regarding this era is when I was in a cab and Rain On Me came on the radio and the driver immediately changed the channel.

You'd better off using Uber hun

 

[Pipo]

Seeing the Chromatica Ball in al its glory (albeit incomplete) made me do a 180 on this album.

 

[OutSynk]

You'd better off using Uber hun

Well it was probably actually Bolt but not sure if anyone here actually knows what that is.

 

[Loufoque]

For me, Babylon is - at times - her best song (alternating with Artpop and Venus)

The first ten tracks are stellar. It dips with Sour Candy and Plastic Doll. Then recovers for the home run.

I think it gets a bit tainted by being "the album you went running to during Covid", and some sanitised production choices (I think the rougher 90s house productions on early demos probably do sound more interesting).

 

[Iguana]

09 Alice
10 Stupid Love
10 Rain On Me
08 Free Woman
07 Fun Tonight
11 911
06 Plastic Doll
08 Sour Candy
07 Enigma
08 Replay
09 Sine From Above
07 1000 Doves
10 Babylon

 

[Dark Carnival]

She saved us from Covid and this is how queens pay her back?

 

[Dark Carnival]

It got me back onboard with Gaga, after the dead aunt and the messy art-bottom.

 

[Jark]

She saved us from Covid and this is how queens pay her back?

doll, that was Future Nostalgia!

 

[Dark Carnival]

doll, that was Future Nostalgia!

And Plastic Hearts. Yeah?

 

[Loufoque]

10 Alice
10 Stupid Love
10 Rain On Me
10 Free Woman
08 Fun Tonight
10 911
05 Plastic Doll
07 Sour Candy
10 Enigma
10 Replay
09 Sine From Above
09 1000 Doves
17 Babylon

 

[Loufoque]

Babylon Live @ Stade de France in 40 degree heat was possibly the moment I queened out hardest in my life. I was literally gagging. And then she did Born This Way and I died.

 

[VoR]

I know I criticised Tension II for being an album of RuPaul’s Drag Race numbers, but How has Babylon not been a lip sync for your life song yet?

 

[Jark]

for the sheer number of really good songs, I'd say it's her second best album. I played it a lot and still enjoy when I go back from time to time.

that said she seemed creatively checked out and left to their own devices the producers clearly went through too many iterations of each song. case in point Free Woman. it sounds overcooked sonically, and sanitised. the likes of Replay, Fun Tonight, Alice could all have been enhanced with better production. only Babylon is truly a 10 on that front...

Sour Candy and 1000 Doves should've been left off.

08 Alice
09 Stupid Love
10 Rain On Me
08.5 Free Woman
08 Fun Tonight
09 911
08 Plastic Doll
06 Sour Candy
08 Enigma
09 Replay
09 Sine From Above
05 1000 Doves
10 Babylon

 

[Sheena]

I know I criticised Tension II for being an album of RuPaul’s Drag Race numbers, but How has Babylon not been a lip sync for your life song yet?

Cause no one knows or cares about it other than 30 something internet gays

 

[ZenGiraffe]

Cause no one knows or cares about it other than 30 something internet gays

So ideal for a drag race lip sync song then!

 

[GNL]

We need Alexandra Burke to cover it on her next album to get it on Ru's radar.

 

[Suedehead]

A solid effort but far from her best. In many ways it feels like Gaga by numbers in retrospect.

 

[funky]

07 Alice
09 Stupid Love
08 Rain On Me
09 Free Woman
07 Fun Tonight
05 911
06 Plastic Doll
06 Sour Candy
10 Enigma
06 Replay
06 Sine From Above
07 1000 Doves
10 Babylon

Definitely her most enjoyable album for me, but that’s simply because of all the 90s dance references.

 

[ZenGiraffe]

07 Alice
09 Stupid Love
08 Rain On Me
09 Free Woman
07 Fun Tonight
05 911
06 Plastic Doll
06 Sour Candy
10 Enigma
06 Replay
06 Sine From Above
07 1000 Doves
10 Babylon

Definitely her most enjoyable album for me, but that’s simply because of all the 90s dance references.

This is... vaguely sensible?

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OLD MAN FUNKY?

 

[funky]

It’s a retro dance album I think it would be more surprising if I didn’t like this album!

 

[funky]

I’m slightly more concerned about this casual erasure of Jessie Ware in the conversation about gay covid albums however

And Kylie for that matter!

I’d MAYBE put Dua Lipa FIFTH!

 

[Suedehead]

Well I gave this a re listen in my current Gaga mania

It just made me run back to Mayhem