They all laughed at Lady Gaga when she said she was a serious artist. They all laughed at Lady Gaga when she said that she could be a jazz singer. They all laughed at Lady Gaga when she said that she could be an actress. … Continue reading They All Laughed
It’s a sign of Lady Gaga’s exceptionally high status as a pop icon that among all of her achievements, a duet with Beyonce is not a career peak but a footnote. For nearly anyone else, getting Beyonce to appear in your video is a high … Continue reading Telephone
With all due respect to everyone else, Lady Gaga is still the single greatest and most important pop star of this century. No one else even comes close in terms of artistry and ambition. Gaga always described herself as “an artist who happened to become … Continue reading Teeth
One thing about Lady Gaga, for all of her many talents, is she’s never really learned how to write a ballad. Every one of her best songs is a screamer. By the standards set by her first album – and followed on most of the … Continue reading Summerboy
I know that I say every year is the worst year, but 2020 really was the worst year yet. The only upside has been that a few of my favorite artists dropped really fine albums, and so did a few people I didn’t yet know about. Overall, this year’s music has been all about escaping, whether into ecstatic dance or melancholic torpor.
Chromatica – Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga may be a trifle young to be ‘returning to her roots’ as critics have said, but she is giving fans what they want – sheer pop escapism in its purest form. She knows that the darkest times are the best time to party, because you may not be here tomorrow.
Fall to Pieces – Tricky
I’m very sorry I’ve never listened to Tricky until now. He’s been doing introspective, eccentric electronica since before most of today’s pop stars were born. He shows them how it’s done, yet again, with his fourteenth album.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple
Every music critic has line up to anoint Fiona Apple’s long-awaited fifth album as one of the year’s best. You know what? They’re right. The soul-baring singer has put her finger on the collective neuroses of our very wretched times.
Manic – Halsey
I hate to take pleasure in someone’s broken heart, but Halsey is the kind of passion-driven artist for whom personal drama is creative jet fuel. Her man cheated on her, and she came back with a record that is her angriest, saddest, and most musically accomplished.
Miss Anthropocene – Grimes
“We appreciate power” is kind of a weird flex for a woman whose babydaddy is a literal MCU villain. Nevertheless, in one of the year’s most ambitious albums, Grimes sets out to, in her words, anthropomorphize the era we’re living in. Does she succeed? Well, that’s not possible, but she sure gives it her very best.
Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus is an artist in search of an identity, since her start as a Disney starlet making generic teen pop, to her look-ma-no-clothes-on club kid phase, to experiments in psychedelia with Wayne Coyne. Now she’s made the honest-to-god rock album she’s been revving up for all this time. Her restlessness will probably take her elsewhere soon enough, but it looks like her talent has blossomed as her independence has grown.
A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip – Sparks
One thing I didn’t care much about this year was hearing what all the old geezers had to say. Old geezers are the reason we’re in this mess. But I always, always want to hear what Ron and Russell Mael have to say. They keep delivering the humanistic satire and musical virtuosity that’s kept them in cult acclaim for so long that most of the things they set out to parody in the first place have faded from memory.
UR FUN – of Montreal
of Montreal is doing everything in their power to keep pop music weird. Their cheekiness and flamboyance directly predate the genre- and gender- blending rising stars of hyperpop, while also looking straight back at the non-conformists of 80’s New Wave and New Romantics. And yes, it’s very fun.
What We Drew – Yaeji
In case anyone still needed convincing that electronic music can be vibrantly multicultural, deeply personal, and emotionally versatile, there’s Yaeji, the Korean-American DJ and producer whose mixtapes and EP’s have made her a cult star among discerning EDM lovers.
Yellow – Brymo
The Nigerian singer-songwriter (and novelist) Brymo has the voice of a torch singer, and a sensibility to match. His music and writing draw on the vices of modern life, Western-canon touchstones like jazz and film noir, and the turbulent history of his homeland. His music doesn’t sound fully like contemporary urban music, nor like world music, or roots music, but rather a natural combination of all those things. He is a modern artist with roots in many places and times.
Honorable Mention: Blush – Maya Hawke/Wilted – Paris Jackson
No one expects much from celebrity offspring, so it’s quite a surprise to see two of them releasing outstanding debuts. Maya Hawke has already proved herself a star with her series-stealing role on Stranger Things, and it feels like she’s just starting to stretch her wings as a singer and as a personality. No one has a more toxic set of family baggage than Paris Jackson, and no one would blame her if she played the angry young woman, but she’s made an introspective album with strong Mazzy Star vibes. Congrats to both of them.
If there’s one thing to be thankful for this year – and God knows, there ain’t many – it’s the arrival of a new Lady Gaga album. In the past few years, Gaga has been stretching and growing, adding film star and jazz vocalist to her resume, among many other creative outlets. Nothing says “welcome to the establishment” like winning an Oscar. Meanwhile, the disco-on-steroids gay club aesthetic she popularized in the mid-2000’s has cycled into and back out of mainstream acceptance, to the point of being ripe for a nostalgic revival. Therefore, the gleaming, gaudy Chromatica is hailed as a return to form for the singer (nothing says “you’re past your prime” like being lauded for ‘returning to form’!) and feels like a throwback for fans who came of age dancing to the club-thumping anthems of the Fame era. Introspection, maturity and social consciousness are all wonderful virtues, which we may look for in our entertainment, but Lady Gaga reminds us, just as she did in 2007, that sometimes what we need is the cleansing escape of mindless hedonism, the rebellion of blocking out the ugly and celebrating the self. Dance music has always been a safe space for people who lead embattled lives, and it’s during the most embattled times that they want to “Just Dance” the hardest.
Lady Gaga has written her generation’s ode to female masturbation, meaning that that particular playlist is now between her and Cyndi Lauper. The difference between now and Lauper’s day is that nobody really noticed. It was barely a blip between all of Lady Gaga’s many … Continue reading So Happy I Could Die
Welp, Lady Gaga is an Oscar nominee now. Our Mother Monster is growing up! I have not seen the alleged cinematic masterpiece that is A Star is Born, but I listened to the soundtrack album, and on its own terms it’s really… kind of terrible. … Continue reading Sinner’s Prayer
Lady Gaga is kind of an absurd character, constantly teetering on the edge between self-serious and silly. That balancing act is inherent in being a pop icon, because it is to some degree absurd that we have people we call ‘pop icons’ in the first … Continue reading Scheiße
Lady Gaga set out to reinvent 80’s style arena rock, and it was just what we didn’t know we needed. Born This Way was full of ridiculously cheesy fist-pump anthems and power ballads. And it was good. So, so good. This is like a long … Continue reading The Queen
Lady Garfunkel's Song of the Day 