This is absolutely my favorite Gaga album and could soon be my ultimate album. Let’s see how it goes because her music and eras work so strongly for specific moments in time that they cement themselves in the capsules they create. And when the next album appears, it just obliterates the last one due to the strong relatability to the current trauma at hand and the evolution of her musicianship—a word I heard from her press tour and now is deeply engraved in my box of fancy words I know where to use.
This one is richer than anything I’ve heard from her—the production is top-notch, and the direction feels timeless and original, although it draws from the past, like Bowie and some dark, brutalist, disco techno club from the future, to create this newly elevated line in pop music that no one expected. I mean, "
Disease" and "Abracadabra" were just the bridge between Chromatica and this new ejaculation of music she made.
This thing is an orgasm of words, incredible music, visions, trauma, and broken-heart energy & love that, much like
Radical Optimism, delivers us from pain and lets us move past it. I don’t want to compare past eras because it annoys me—like trying to pin something obvious to the artist’s past. We all can observe the evolution in the work, the voice, the direction, and follow it for ourselves. It feels like YouTube is full of comments about which era carved the way to here, almost sounding like accusations of copy-pasting. Let’s focus on her future because Gaga worked her head off for this album and for the singles to be received the way I received them and to overcome that black spot
Joker 2 was made to be.
The interviews, the looks, that freaking press conference with the Little Monsters who asked all the right questions, whose answers blew me away. "She once again came to save pop music"—the one repetitive YouTube comment I can tolerate at this point because it’s true.
Her vision gave birth to these new aesthetics in genres that needed to be mixed and evolved to replicate her ongoing worldwide success. If I had to pin down one to three crucial songs from this album that define its success, I couldn’t. Every song is absolutely special, and the whole project works together as a fully finished psychedelic disco dream.
I feel like because Gaga is a bit older than me, her music always comes like a remedy in the right time for the traumas I’m experiencing right now. This album crashed all expectations and made the pain I’ve been feeling lately easier, digestible, curable. I was waiting for the new album like I wait for the others—to cure and point the direction—and she didn’t disappoint. Her lyrics feel like I am understood, like I already cried on her shoulder and shared about my broken heart in our therapy session, and she felt it. I love being seen by an artist’s work through this weird connection we all experience when our paths and memories fit into their work. This form of connectivity almost feels like a hive consciousness but also helps me relax. Almost sounds like, "Hey, I’ve been there, I moved on, this is what happened, use it if you need it, and it’s okay."
Who knew she would deliver again? Me, I knew. And she exceeded my expectations—which only happens with the best of the best.
Look, I could write for hours about what Gaga and her art mean to me, but I will not defend her anymore; she is good.
The one thing, though, about Gaga is that you will remain disappointed if you try to put her in a box, as she often doesn’t match your expectations. A true fan will go on this journey with her wherever she decides to take us.
Iliya Badev
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