Lady GaGa has always managed to stay within the public consciousness due to her outlandish aesthetic, fantastical live performances and unusual and queer comments. However, most importantly her previous albums (particularly The Fame Monster and Born This Way) injected a fearless energy of euro-trash dance-floor anthems, which have propelled and maintained her in the realms of superstardom. Her previous album ARTPOP was received lukewarmly and is still incredibly underrated, mainly because as it was a much harsher, trashier and thematically much more confused outing than prior experiments.
Within the time between ARTPOP and Joanne, Gaga has remained a staple within pop culture through different mediums; releasing an album of jazz standards with Tony Bennett and touring it, performing a wonderful melody of songs from The Sound of Music at the Oscars in 2015, winning Billboard's Woman of the Year 2015, as well as starring in the hit TV show American Horror Story and winning and Golden Globe for her participation.
Gaga's return to her own music, as anticipated as it may be for her swarms of 'monsters' however is an admirable attempt at regaining a sense of authenticity in an era where authenticity seems to imply artistic evolution. In that regard, Gaga achieves an illusory form of such mainly through how meticulously rendered the album is. In an attempt of a bold rebranding of her now stripped down aesthetic lies confused half-baked concepts and a cacophony of confused and messy songs which are an unusual, and for the most part unsuccessful, hybrid of Americana, Rock, Blues, Folk, Europop, and Country. Joanne is painfully over-produced, which compromises the elemental nature which Gaga is going for, and for someone who still identifies herself to the public as Lady Gaga, Joanne is the result of a failed attempt at sincerity from an artist who has initially revelled in playful liberation and artifice.
Continue reading: Lady Gaga - Joanne Album Review