Welcome to Chromatica!

After four years away, Lady Gaga has returned with her sixth studio album, Chromatica!

“I WANT YOUR STUPID LOVE, LOVE!”

Spanning the comeback single and music video, Stupid Love, with the video being shot entirely on the iPhone 11 Pro, the song went straight to Number 1 on the day of release!

“I’D RATHER BE DRY BUT AT LEAST I’M ALIVE, RAIN ON ME, RAIN, RAIN…RAIN. ON. ME!”

Rain On Me (with Ariana Grande), stormed to the Number 1 Spot on the 22nd May, with more than 10 million+ streams on Spotify and over 60 million+ views in its first week.

Mother Monster is back and is ready to slay with her Little Monsters!

Standing in at 20 tracks, Chromatica sees collaborations from Ariana Grande, the music legend, Elton John, and the K-POP group, BLACKPINK:

Chromatica I
Alice
Stupid Love
Rain On Me (with Ariana Grande)
Free Woman
Fun Tonight
Chromatica II
911
Plastic Doll
Sour Candy (with BLACKPINK)
Enigma
Replay
Chromatica III
Sine From Above (with Elton John)
1000 Doves
Babylon
Love Me Right (Target Exclusive Edition / International Deluxe Edition)
1000 Doves (Piano Demo) [Target Exclusive Edition / International Deluxe Edition]
Stupid Love (Vitaclub Warehouse Mix) [Target Exclusive Edition]
Stupid Love (Ellis Remix) [Japanese Edition]

This album is one of her most progressive and definitive works to date as each track on the album capture’s Lady Gaga’s sound and how she intended for the album to be her dancefloor, as she owns it and musically, her creative direction on this album stands out as one of her most remarkable returns to pop since Born This Way.

Below is the iTunes Review for Chromatica, with added commentary in which Lady Gaga broke down the meanings behind some of the songs off the album:

iTunes Review

“This music actually healed me.” Thatʼs the hopeful message Lady
Gaga brings with her as she emerges from something of a career
detour—having mostly abandoned dance pop in favour of her 2016
album Joanneʼs more stripped-back sound and the intimate singer-songwriter fare of 2018ʼs A Star Is Born. She returns with
Chromatica, a concept album about an Oz-like virtual world of
colours—produced by BloodPop®, who also worked on Joanne—
and itʼs a return to form for the disco diva. “Iʼm making a dance
record again,” Gaga tells Apple Music, “and this dance floor, itʼs
mine, and I earned it.” As with many artists, music is a form of
therapy for Gaga, helping her exorcise the demons of past family
traumas. But it wasnʼt until she could embrace her own struggles—
with mental health, addiction and recovery, the trauma of sexual
assault—that she felt free enough to start dancing again. “All that
stuff that I went through, I donʼt have to feel pain about it anymore.
It can just be a part of me, and I can keep going.”

And thatʼs the freedom she wants her fans to experience—even if it
will be a while before most of them can enjoy the new album in a
club setting. “I canʼt wait to dance with people to this music,” says
Gaga. But until then, she hopes theyʼll find a little therapy in the
music, like she did. “It turns out if you believe in yourself,
sometimes youʼre good enough. I would love for people that listen
to this record to feel and hear that.” Below, Lady Gaga walks us
through some of the key tracks on Chromatica and explains the
stories behind them.

Chromatica I

“The beginning of the album symbolises for me the beginning of
my journey to healing. It goes right into this grave string
arrangement, where you feel this pending doom that is what
happens if I face all the things that scare me. That string
arrangement is setting the stage for a more cinematic experience
with this world that is how I make sense of things.”

Alice

“I had some dark conversations with BloodPop® about how I felt
about life. ‘Iʼm in the hole, Iʼm falling down/So down, down/My
name isnʼt Alice, but Iʼll keep looking for Wonderland.ʼ So itʼs this
weird experience where Iʼm going, ‘Iʼm not sure Iʼm going to make
it, but Iʼm going to try.ʼ And thatʼs where the album really begins.”

Stupid Love

“In the ‘Stupid Loveʼ video, red and blue are fighting. It could
decidedly be a political commentary. And itʼs very divisive. The way
that I see the world is that we are divided, and that it creates a
tense environment that is very extremist. And itʼs part of my vision
of Chromatica, which is to say that this is not dystopian, and itʼs
not utopian. This is just how I make sense of things. And I wish that
to be a message that I can translate to other people.”

Rain on Me (With Ariana Grande)

“When we were vocally producing her, I was sitting at the console
and I said to her, ‘Everything that you care about while you sing, I want you to forget it and just sing. And by the way, while youʼre
doing that, Iʼm going to dance in front of you,ʼ because we had this
huge, big window. And she was like, ‘Oh my god, I canʼt. I donʼt
know.ʼ And then she started to do things with her voice that were
different. And it was the joy of two artists going, ‘I see you.ʼ Humans do this. We all do things to make ourselves feel safe, and I
always challenge artists when I work with them, I go, ‘Make it super
f**king unsafe and then do it again.ʼ”

Free Woman

“I was sexually assaulted by a music producer. Itʼs compounded all
of my feelings about life, feelings about the world, feelings about
the industry, what I had to compromise and go through to get to where I am. And I had to put it there. And when I was able to finally
celebrate it, I said, ‘You know what? Iʼm not nothing without a
steady hand. Iʼm not nothing unless I know I can. Iʼm still something
if I donʼt got a man, Iʼm a free woman.ʼ Itʼs me going, ‘I no longer am
going to define myself as a survivor, or a victim of sexual assault. I
just am a person that is free, who went through some f**ked-up s**t.ʼ”

911

“Itʼs about an antipsychotic that I take. And itʼs because I canʼt
always control things that my brain does. I know that. And I have to
take medication to stop the process that occurs. ‘Keep my dolls
inside diamond boxes/Save it till I know Iʼm going to drop this front
Iʼve built around me/Oasis, paradise is in my hands/Holding on so
tight to this status/Itʼs not real, but Iʼll try to grab it/Keep myself in
beautiful places, paradise is in my hands.ʼ”

Sine From Above (With Elton John)

“S-I-N-E, because itʼs a sound wave. That sound, sine, from above
is what healed me to be able to dance my way out of this album. ‘I
heard one sine from above/I heard one sine from above/Then the
signal split into the sound created stars like me and you/Before
there was love, there was silence/I heard one sine and it healed my
heart, heard a sine.ʼ That was later in the recording process that I
actually was like, ‘And now let me pay tribute to the very thing that
has revived me, and that is music.ʼ”

I love her personality and creative direction on the album, as she’s free to express herself, and is not afraid in expressing her vulnerabilities, all while spreading kindness throughout, and to craft a high-octane dancefloor record that allows her to be herself and empower everyone else around the world is truly remarkable.

You can imagine I waited so patiently for Chromatica to be released as I was bursting with excitement when she announced and confirmed the album back in March that I pre-ordered the album as soon as it became available for me to pre-order directly from her official store.

I have to admit when I heard Lady Gaga’s collaboration with BLACKPINK for Sour Candy, I did hear elements of Katy Perry’s Swish Swish here and there, though what was a subtle nod to her past music was when she mentioned Paparazzi in the song, Fun Tonight, and I thought that was a nice touch because Lady Gaga’s creative sound and direction has matured over time and what defines her is her music, her work as an advocate for mental health, including her continued hard work to spread kindness in a world that is currently on lockdown, including how she explores her vulnerabilities in her music, and I wholly applaud Lady Gaga for crafting a masterpiece that doesn’t just explore the powerful energy this album exerts, but allows her to project her vulnerabilities in such a way where anyone can relate to what she’s been through, while at the same time, encouraging everyone to be themselves.

Overall, Chromatica is Lady Gaga’s most progressive and mature record to date and reflects on themes around mental health, healing, finding happiness through hardship, compassion and love.

To listen to Lady Gaga’s sixth studio album, Chromatica, click play below to stream the album on Spotify.

If you enjoyed my review on Lady Gaga’s sixth studio album, Chromatica, please feel free to comment below and if you’ve listened to the album, I would love to hear your feedback on Chromatica.

Alex Smithson

CHROMATICA ALBUM RATING: 10/10

© Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), Interscope Records, Streamline Records, KonLive Distribution, Cherrytree Music Company, Def Jam Recordings, Spotify, Apple (and Apple Music), 2020

© The Chromatica album artwork, the featured image, the Spotify Playlist consisting of Lady Gaga’s sixth album, Chromatica, the iTunes Review (editors’ notes), the Chromatica Tribe Symbols, the official Chromatica logos and taglines, including other materials, logos, lyrics and addresses shown in this review and featured image are copyright of Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), Interscope Records, Streamline Records, KonLive Distribution, Cherrytree Music Company, Def Jam Recordings, Spotify, Apple (and Apple Music). Full copyright goes to the respective owners.