Lady Gaga - The Chromatica Era

[Loufoque]

Five days on, this album keeps gagging me while simultaneously giving me life

10 Alice
10 Stupid Love
10 Rain On Me
10 Free Woman
09 Fun Tonight
08 9/11
05 Plastic Doll
07 Sour Candy
11 Enigma
07 Replay
10 Sine From Above
09 1000 Doves
16 Babylon

 

[Loufoque]

while some tops and verses have been counting Gaga out since ARTPOP and even calling her "streaming poison," "has-been," etc. this happened:

Cheek to Cheek #1
Joanne #1
Million Reasons #4
A Super Bowl PER. FOR. MANCE.
Shallow #1
ASIB #1
An Oscar
Six Grammys
Stupid Love #5
Rain On Me #1
Chromatica #1 - 3rd biggest STREAMING debut for a female artist ever (after Ari and T-Swift) AND her biggest selling debut in the U.S. after BORN THIS WAY (which was sold for 99 cents... so C, being sold at full price, and adjusted for inflation, might be her biggest selling debut in the U.S. of ALL TIME)

the way power bottoms won.

stan Lady Gaga for clear skin and a bright future.

We stan hagiography. Gaga - the biggest pop star in the world 2013-19

 

[Loufoque]

I'm NOT SORRY

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

Re: Sine gets a 9. It would have got a 10 because it's a good pop song, but it lost a point for each of Elton John and the DnB. It then gained a point for the DnB.

Score: 9.2

I legit declare it her BEST EVER ALBUM!

I find the figures used in this post a little on the low side.

 

[Loufoque]

And don't get me started on some queens jumping on this moment to bash ARTPOP (just as I thought... TRASH, etc.). We should all now recognise that album for the baroque-pop masterpiece it is and always has been. No other pop star would have dared to give us three different ABBA choruses in a row the way Gags did on Venus. Not even ABBA themselves.

 

[Sheena]

And don't get me started on some queens jumping on this moment to bash ARTPOP (just as I thought... TRASH, etc.). We should all now recognise that album for the baroque-pop masterpiece it is and always has been. No other pop star would have dared to give us three different ABBA choruses in a row the way Gags did on Venus. Not even ABBA themselves.

I still think ARTPOP is my second favourite, only JUST behind The Fame Monster (and I mean that second, individual album, not the whole double disc reissue).

 

[Loufoque]

I find ranking her albums difficult. I can appreciate that TFM is probably her most streamlined and "clean" but I just love her messy bottom side too much not to stan the insane maximalism of ARTPOP and industrial gay revolution of Born This Way so much more. And then I think Joanne is a wonderful album that really shows what a good songwriter she is. I go back to it often when feeling in the mood for a more sophisticated Gaga moment.

 

[Jark]

I actually don't much care for The Fame Monster. Three properly great singles and one decent album track, but half of it I never use (and it's only 8 songs).

I rarely visit The Fame either, and only occasionally dabble in Joanne (Angel Down is my go-to), so the side of her pop career that I properly stan has historically been limited to two albums, more or less. It's nice to have a new addition to that oeuvre - regardless of how I think Chromatica compares (and I'm tempted to say it's on a level with ARTPOP currently, albeit without the HIDEOUS lows), I think I'll be getting a lot of use out of it this year and hopefully beyond.

Current rate

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

 

[Beverley]

The Fame Monster reissue was a masterstroke, surprised she's never tried to replicate it.

I'm still waiting for ARTPOP 2

 

[OutSynk]

I’m in the hole I’m falling down down SO down down

 

[joanne]

1. Joanne
2. The Fame Monster
3. Chromatica
4. Born This Way
5. ARTPOP
6. The Fame

Joanne was a monumental classic in pop music. It inspired a wave of yeeha albums by the likes of Kesha, JT, Miley Cyrus, and even Lana Del Rey. imitated but never duplicated.

 

[joanne]

I actually don't much care for The Fame Monster.

first George Floyd and now this....

 

[Jark]

must have missed Kesha's country album. Miley has Nashville in her blood - her godmother is Dolly! And Lana was certainly never inspired by Joanne. Let's not do too much over an album that was, fundamentally, just another "popstar goes authentic singer-songwriter" moment of whatever.

 

[joanne]

Lana was certainly never inspired by Joanne.

you're certainly entitled to your wrong opinions.

Beautiful People and Tomorrow Never Came sound like reductive Angel Down B-sides.

 

[Loufoque]

Joanne was a nice moment in her catalogue, and it (and especially Million Reasons) paved the way for the Karens to stan Shallow and sing it on the Underground. But I don't think it was influential OUTSIDE of Gaga's own career arc.

 

[lolly]

I stand by my ARTPOP dislike.

Totally going to suggest it to @octophone for a moopy album sync listen though, as I haven't listened to it as a complete work for at least 5 years, and I only have the vaguest recollection of some of the tracks.

 

[Loufoque]

Even though the pandemic and now the BLM crisis has played havoc with promotional schedules, etc. I think somehow the era has benefited from the overall turmoil - the idea of bopping to Gaga like we did a decade ago seems oddly comforting in these times

 

[Jark]

you're certainly entitled to your wrong opinions.

Beautiful People and Tomorrow Never Came sound like reductive Angel Down B-sides.

Suggesting a song as great as Tomorrow Never Came was inspired by Joanne is kind of insulting honestly but you do you

 

[octophone]

I stand by my ARTPOP dislike.

Totally going to suggest it to @octophone for a moopy album sync listen though, as I haven't listened to it as a complete work for at least 5 years, and I only have the vaguest recollection of some of the tracks.

I've never heard it. It wasn't deliberate avoidance, I just never got 'round to it.

I haven't heard the A Star Is Born soundtrack either. Sorry Gags.

 

[RS]

ARTPOP is two different albums for me; one half is her best album (Aura, Venus, GUY, DWUW, Sexxx Dreams, Artpop, Applause)... the other half is unlistenable shit.

 

[Loufoque]

Even though the pandemic and now the BLM crisis has played havoc with promotional schedules, etc. I think somehow the era has benefited from the overall turmoil - the idea of bopping to Gaga like we did a decade ago seems oddly comforting in these times

 

[Sheena]

1. The Fame Monster
2. Artpop
3. The Fame
4. Born This Way
5. Joanne

I'm reluctant to pop Chromatica in yet because I've not played it enough (and this morning's IN CAR SPIN actually made me TAP ALONG a fair bit, so we could be ON OUR WAY, loves), but I imagine it'll end up around 5-6.

 

[lolly]

I've never heard it. It wasn't deliberate avoidance, I just never got 'round to it.

I haven't heard the A Star Is Born soundtrack either. Sorry Gags.

Can we bung it on the list? Tuesday rather than Sunday, I'd have thought.

 

[cwej]

I'm calling it now. I think this is her best album.

Well you do you hun

Jark the next day: 'actually yeah it's in her top 2'...

 

[cwej]

The Fame Monster reissue was a masterstroke, surprised she's never tried to replicate it.

I'm still waiting for ARTPOP 2

I guess there's not the same need these days. Physical sales have dropped so immensely that there's no need to get people to try and buy a copy twice by 're-issuing'.

But man I wish there was an ARTPOP 2!!

 

[Loufoque]

Just like Mariah has reclaimed Glitter, I imagine Gaga will fully re-embrace ARTPOP once she has fully solidified her legacy. She had to distance herself from it for the last few years for the "rebrand" but with two #1s in the last two years and two smash albums, she can finally make #justiceforARTPOP happen

 

[joanne]

ARTPOP is two different albums for me; one half is her best album (Aura, Venus, GUY, DWUW, Sexxx Dreams, Artpop, Applause)... the other half is unlistenable shit.

sir im gonna need you to step outside of the vehicle and add Gypsy and Fashion! to that list immediately.

 

[Loufoque]

Future Gaga tours need to be divided into two segments: the Karens leg, featuring TF/TFM, ASIB and Chromatica singles and the Power Bottom leg featuring deep cuts from BTW, ARTPOP, Joanne and Chromatica.

I am only interested in the second leg.

 

[octophone]

Can we bung it on the list? Tuesday rather than Sunday, I'd have thought.

Okay.

 

[Sheena]

I guess there's not the same need these days. Physical sales have dropped so immensely that there's no need to get people to try and buy a copy twice by 're-issuing'.

But man I wish there was an ARTPOP 2!!

The thought of ARTPOP 2 would just be INCREDIBLE.

I know it was mentioned at the time, but do we know ANYTHING about it, does anyone know? Was it stuff she said she'd already recorded?

 

[Penelope]

1. ARTPOP
2. The Fame Monster
3. Born This Way
4. Chromatica
5. The Fame


6. Joanne

 

[Suomi]

I've tried, but aside from the Chromatica III suite (Sine From Above, 1000 Doves, Babylon) I think I prefer ARTPOP

I mean it's still a 7 but it's all so DISPOSABLE! Maybe I just need to have another wine

It is with deep regret that I must now inform Moopy that this morning Penelope had her Chromatica passport revoked and is currently strapped to rocket #9 ready to be deported to Venus bye monster

 

[Sheena]

In fairness, if you don't want to take off on ROCKET #9 TO THE PLANET VENUS, Chromatica or NO Chromatica, you're a BIT OF A TIT

 

[AGinAg (37)]

I've honestly not listened to ArtPop since the time. She was just so utterly off-putting at the time. I don't recall hating the music despite everything. I'd be so up for an urgent group relisten.

Some context of where she is in her career compared to our other long lived divas - Kylie was releasing Spinning Around and Madonna was about to release Ray of Light (if you presume her pop career began in 1985), so a spectacular career comeback was entirely predictable if you follow the standard diva trajectory.

 

[straightorbroken]

ArtPop gave me the burst of melodies Nina Hagen and Leila K would kill for, it was something of a grotesque masterpiece.

I've never even heard Joanne. I do hope the next dead relative will have been a huge KLF, K, T, G and E fan.

 

[Loufoque]

I've honestly not listened to ArtPop since the time. She was just so utterly off-putting at the time. I don't recall hating the music despite everything.

Gaga's problem between 11-13 was a combination of 1. her personality (she was insufferably pretentious at certain points and came across as phoney a lot of the time - she later admitted that she spent much of her early career playing a role; by the time ARTPOP rolled around, this role-play had transformed into a desperate-looking victim complex which seemed to be born in equal parts out of Madonna's trolling and a loss of her causal fanbase during the Born This Way campaign... This was partly due to her own antics, but also because of...) 2. her toxic, maniac fanbase, whose freakiness she leaned into WAY too heavily, creating cult-like, entitled, literal "monsters" who put off the rest of the general public by association, and ultimately came to terrorise her as much as they used to do to online fanbases in the early part of last decade...

 

[Pipo]

There's some stuff on Chromatica that wouldn't sound out of place in Artpop but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[RS]

Some context of where she is in her career compared to our other long lived divas - Kylie was releasing Spinning Around and Madonna was about to release Ray of Light (if you presume her pop career began in 1985), so a spectacular career comeback was entirely predictable if you follow the standard diva trajectory.

In my head, I still see Gaga as a fairly new artist in the earlier part of her career. Both RoL and LY felt like they came much later in Madonna’s and Kylie’s careers respectively.
They did release many more albums than Gaga has though.

 

[joanne]

In my head, I still see Gaga as a fairly new artist in the earlier part of her career. Both RoL and LY felt like they came much later in Madonna’s and Kylie’s careers respectively.
They did release many more albums than Gaga has though.

at this stage in their careers Madge had 3 #1 albums and 1 Grammy while Gaga has 6 #1 albums and 11 Grammys.

 

[joanne]

oh and an Oscar
https://www.moopy.co.uk/data/avatars/m/30/30705.jpg?1590693914

 

[Penelope]

Gaga's problem between 11-13 was a combination of 1. her personality (she was insufferably pretentious at certain points and came across as phoney a lot of the time - she later admitted that she spent much of her early career playing a role; by the time ARTPOP rolled around, this role-play had transformed into a desperate-looking victim complex which seemed to be born in equal parts out of Madonna's trolling and a loss of her causal fanbase during the Born This Way campaign... This was partly due to her own antics, but also because of...) 2. her toxic, maniac fanbase, whose freakiness she leaned into WAY too heavily, creating cult-like, entitled, literal "monsters" who put off the rest of the general public by association, and ultimately came to terrorise her as much as they used to do to online fanbases in the early part of last decade...

3. That she was coked off her nut the whole time