Well for starters, I've always been a big fan of Lady Gaga. For those of you that are still reading, good evening! If you don't know who Lady Gaga is and you're alive during this century, you sir/ma'am have to get out more. On her first album, "The Fame" (as well as "The Fame Monster" expansion EP thingy, I dunno even what the hell it is to be honest), Gaga was making electronic/dance bangers that were too catchy too ignore, with her own bizarre characteristics of course. This artsy, left field approach to Pop set her aside from other current Pop Stars. Over the years, she's gotten bigger and bigger, expanding her sound to the much louder and ballad driven "Born This Way", as well as the artsy, kinky "ARTPOP", both which I enjoyed as well. And what do you know, here we have Gaga's first new material in a few years, "Joanne". Now to be honest, I really wasn't expecting much going into this. "Perfect Illusion" was alright to me, but I was expecting a little more, it just didn't seem like a lead single to me. Plus I heard Gaga was going for a more stripped back, straightforward sound, which worried me a bit. So let's talk about "Joanne", shall we.
“Joanne” starts off with “Diamond Heart”. Now call me crazy but I’m trying to think of a Gaga album that didn’t start off with a bang. The intro to “Diamond Heart” really doesn’t give away much at all. Gaga’s vocals over the years have become consistently more soulful, even a little bluesy at times. This goes doubly for the songs here, and they just get more bluesy sounding as the album goes on. The verses on “Diamond Heart” though seem on the tame side, and really don’t do much for me at all. As far as the lyrics go, these are some of the most down to earth sounding lyrics I’ve ever heard from Gaga. However, they come off as almost preachy from time to time, and clearly the exact opposite of the fun pop songs she used to turn out constantly. However, Gaga really turns this track around for the chorus. The chorus on “Diamond Heart” has some of the most passionate vocals I’ve heard from Gaga in a while, totally saving the rest of the track. Josh Tillman (A.K.A. Father John Misty) plays drums on this one, and while his performance doesn’t bring in anything life changing here, I actually feel like Gaga stylistically has taken a lot from Misty for this track. “Diamond Heart” isn’t perfect, and it’s certainly not as catchy as you would hope from Gaga. But she makes up for it with a strong, solid performance, I still just wish the verses were more interesting. The quality of the album however takes a hard nosedive really fast though with “A-Yo”. Clearly this is more along the lines of a pop tune that you would expect from Gaga, and Mark Ronson’s glossy production is most apparent here, but everything else about this track is cheesy as hell. While I think Gaga is one hell of a singer, this track just has such a swagger to it that’s so cocky that I can’t take it the slightest bit seriously. Not to mention the lyrics here really aren’t any better at all, filled with every pop cliche in the book. Hell, I would even go as far as to say that the first time I heard this track it almost sent me packing to the point where I didn’t want to finish the album. That all being said though, I still think Gaga gives us one hell of a vocal performance. She’s always been comfortable with her voice and hitting all the high notes she can, but these tracks are showing her let loose more than ever. Also, the instrumental here is pretty ok as well, with Queens of the Stone Age legend Josh Homme playing guitar (as well as on a handful of other tracks). Overall though, “A-Yo” is just too obnoxious is too many ways for me to really enjoy. Up next is the title track, “Joanne”, which starts off with an acoustic intro. Not that I have anything against acoustic tracks, but certain artists upon hearing that acoustic intro I get instantly worried for them. Once again though I find the lyrics doing a whole lot of nothing for me. Gaga is trying to be super deep and personal, and that’s totally fine. I actually think that that’s really what she needs at this point in her career. But some of these tracks seriously miss that mark completely. Tracks like “Joanne” don’t come off sincere at all, they come off pretty full of themselves to say the least. And it’s a shame, because as far as her performance goes, it’s explosive and as far as vocals go incredibly heartfelt. But then I get the feeling like she’s going for almost a Bob Dylan or an old school folk sound. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but my God does this ever fall short of THAT. “Joanne” just ends up being Ok at best. But Gaga isn’t completely out of ideas, the next track “John Wayne” is executed near perfectly. The intro here is a little bizarre and totally off the wall, but it works so well. There’s a strong funk to this one, which is totally something I’m welcoming after all of these safe sounding tracks. Lyrically, this is one big ode to Gaga wanting a cowboy in her life, but all of these elements work together pretty well for her. It’s not as preachy at all, and most importantly it’s just catchy and fun. The small yet explosive buildup to the chorus works fantastically, and while “John Wayne” at points has a southern flair to it, it really doesn’t come off cheesy at all. It ACTUALLY comes off pretty wild, especially for this album. “John Wayne” is one of the album’s shortest tracks, but it’s straightforward, catchy, and it breaks up the album nicely.
As messy and all over the place “Joanne” is, there are also a handful of really solid tunes. Let’s chat about the big single from this album, “Perfect Illusion”. The opening instrumentals to this one give it a massive, epic sound, and when the beat picks up Gaga sounds right at home. Yes, “Perfect Illusion” is massively cheesy and completely over the top. But it works wonderfully here, and everything works in her favor. Gaga throughout sounds completely confident in herself. and while this track has a great beat and all, it still sticks for the most part with her more personal sound she's going for. There’s even an occasional retro feel here mostly due to the twinkling synths floating through the background. Yes there are some cliches here and there, but get over yourself, Gaga works on this tune. “Million Reasons” up next on the other hand really steals the show. From the opening few bars clearly we’re working with a ballad. But unlike earlier attempts at a track like this, Gaga absolutely nails this one. This is honestly the sound that I thought she was going to go for more with the album entirely. Vocally this is stunning, not a single note here is anything less than perfect. When it comes to lyrics, this may be one of Gaga’s finest moments in general. Her lyrical performance here is insanely heartfelt and absolutely gorgeous. No this probably isn’t going to climb any pop charts, but Gaga gained a lot of respect from me for this one. “Million Reasons” is just an incredible performance, especially when those gigantic drums start piling up on top of everything. A few tracks later Gaga gives us “Hey Girl”, which honestly I thought I wasn’t going to be able to stomach, most because of the feature. “Hey Girl” features Florence Welch, who I think is a good singer and all, but I can’t think of a single Florence And The Machine track I can sit through. But honestly, Gaga and Florence pull this off perfectly. Once again those synths are bringing in a sort if retro vibe that both ladies sound right at home on. Both performances are powerful and emotional, not to mention this is just one of the better tracks I’ve heard about being friends with someone in ages. But what makes this track so decent is how simple it is. It’s not overly indulgent, it’s not preachy, it’s not over the top, but it still comes off as mature. “Hey Girl” overall is just a solid duet. Now that I have all of that out of my system, this brings me to my point of “Joanne”’s biggest downfall. There are so many great tracks here, with wonderful down to earth songwriting, as well as some of Gaga’s most passionate performances in year. But THEN after all of that, I hear garbage like “Dancin’ In Circles”. This track starts off with a nice groove that actually wakes me up a bit, but then literally it turns into a 4 minute track about masturbation. There’s innuendo’s and all but c’mon, unless I'm missing something this is seriously 4 minutes of masturbation talk. I would have expected this on her last album “ARTPOP”, which practically every song was about sex. But then I hear this, on an album that’s supposed to be so different in every way, and it’s like a slap in the face. Everything in Gaga’s performance just ends up coming off as awkward. The instrumental is ok, the verses are catchy and all, but everything else is grossly out of place.
I feel like this is just such an inconsistent album to really love from start to finish. “Sinners Prayer” once again shows Gaga going down a more country path. But here, she takes a little too much from that style. She’s going for this old school, story telling kind of jam, and lyrically she pulls it off massively. But honestly, I just can’t take this seriously coming from her, the piano’s come off goofy occasionally, and some of the references that Gaga tries to bring in to “update” this sound are just awkward as anything. “Come To Mama” I have a lot of the same problems with. Gaga on this one goes for a more bluesy track once again, almost drifting into the sound that she tried out with Tony Bennett on their collaboration album. The problem is, THAT came off as classy, “Come To Mama” just comes off as awkward. Lyrically, it’s not terrible at all, as a matter of fact I like the more relevant style of lyrics here (even though they do get a bit preachy at parts). But musically, I just don’t think it works all together. At the very least though, Gaga pulls out one hell of a finale. “Angel Down” right off the bat has one of the most somber sounding intro’s of the entire album. It’s a dark track to say the least, with telling lyrics and some of Gaga’s most emotional vocals on the entire album. I’m not even going to go far into it, because honestly I can’t even begin to do it justice, it’s one of the most hypnotic, haunting tracks I’ve ever heard Gaga on, check it yourselves.
Rating: 7.0/10
Give A Listen To: “Million Reasons”, “Hey Girl”, “Perfect Illusion”, “Angel Down”.
Overall Thoughts: You know this one is really hard. I have to commend her for going for a more straightforward sound. But seriously, it's so inconsistent. There are some truly emotional, heartfelt tracks here that blow my mind, but some get way too full of themselves too quickly. Then there's other moments on here that try to be more fun but just come off as ridiculous and grossly out of place. This can be the start of a lot of great things though, especially if she sticks down this path and gets more consistent.
(And yes I know there were no Youtube clips on this one, I just couldn't really find any good ones on there, sorry!)
No comments:
Post a Comment