When looking at the bevy of pop stars who have become institutions in the past 20 years, there are few who have ridden a tidal wave quite like Lady Gaga. Whether it’s comments of plagiarizing Madonna or the person who wore a meat dress to an awards ceremony, she has done everything in her power to stay in the conversation. She is a provocateur and for several years couldn’t leave her house without audiences wondering what she would wear. She was an artist and one who was easy to satirize due to this outsider nature, looking more like she belonged in an exhibit than on the global stage.
That is why it’s amazing to note that she was never just a gimmick. With her latest album “Chromatica,” she releases her first proper studio album since 2016‘s “Joanne” and it looks like we’re in for one of her strangest outings yet. Having just won an Oscar for A Star is Born (2018), she is experiencing a cultural shift in how the world sees her. She is no longer a joke, but a genuine phenomenon with the accolades to back it up. She’s capable of doing everything from monster pop ballads to duets with Tony Bennett. Her charisma knows no bounds.
As someone who has thoroughly enjoyed her work throughout the past 10+ years, I felt like dedicating this week’s Top 5 to looking back on the many singles that she has released. The biggest issue was trying to narrow them down, as her work has constantly pushed boundaries and kept us guessing. Sure, some of them may have not been as successful or as interesting as she intended (see: “ArtPOP”), but that isn’t from lack of trying. Even her failures are interesting, such as the A Star is Born number “Why Did You Do That To Me?” which has never been universally accepted as good or bad.
I am going off of the list currently on Wikipedia. With that said, I am not considering anything off of “Chromatica,” as I like to listen to most albums without prior knowledge. I am excited to know what lies in store for her new album, as the artwork looks to be fierce and vibrant, maybe succeeding where “ArtPOP” failed. Who knows. Until that answer comes, let’s dive into the work of an artist who didn’t know a style she couldn’t adapt and make her own, turning the world of pop music into something much more interesting and fun.
1. “The Edge of Glory” (“Born This Way,” 2011)
This is where things began to feel more serious for Lady Gaga as an artist. While “The Fame” gave her enough material to make her more than a one hit wonder, she wasn’t yet more than a flash in the pan. With this album, she busted down the door and created her own cult, calling her fans “Little Monsters” and taking her fashion choices to another level. Her music videos got even stranger, her pro-LGBT messages clearer. Everything about this album was more than some satire on being a celebrity in the modern era. This was a mission statement saying that she was here to stay and if you didn’t like her, then things were about to become difficult for you.
For me, this song has everything that makes her an incredible force in music. The towering instrumentation embodies everything from electric guitars and fading chants, to a saxophone solo. Everything about the song sounds like it should wind up a jumbled mess, serving as more than a pastiche than a greater statement. While it can be argued that she is borrowing heavily from many resources, her ability to make turns of phrases like “Tonight, yeah baby!” into triumphant statements of love and partying shows what she’s capable of. Add in that the bridge grows quiet, you sense that the chorus is going to be something special.
It is. From the minute she sings “I’m on the edge of glory!” you are thrown into her world of flashing lights. This song has a range and focus that is unsurpassed in her career, making you understand the exhilaration inside of her. Everything about her career is distilled over these minutes, showing that even within the world of pop, she was challenging herself to be more interesting, bolder than her competition. If you want to know where the epicenter of the modern Lady Gaga started, it was here. From here, anything was possible.
2. “Million Reasons” (“Joanne,” 2016)
With “Joanne,” it looked like the gimmicks were over and Lady Gaga was about to become something more conventional. Her style was stripped down, the title song dedicated to her grandmother. She was pushing away the façade and wanting to present a more vulnerable side of an artist, even releasing the documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017) in hopes that we were seeing something more real, more honest. Considering that “Chromatica” finds her back with an even bigger style, it makes this moment all the more curious.
As a result, it features some of her most painstaking and honest tracks to date, finding herself favoring pianos and acoustic guitars that emphasize her voice. With “Million Reasons,” she has distilled her more classical style into a ballad that is covered in so much aching power behind every note. You can feel how much this song means to her, predicting where her career would go with A Star is Born. You can feel her optimism shining through, reflecting one of the most human songs in her entire songbook.
While she’s had plenty of slower songs over the course of her career, this is the first and most memorable one. She manages to make the repetitive use of the title into something more sweet and honest. It reflects her gifts as a singer, able to take a breather from the big show to reflect on other things that are important in life. If you’re not swaying and smiling during this song, then maybe Lady Gaga isn’t for you. She gives her all on this song, and it’s difficult to not recognize it as a solid song, even for those who find it entirely dissonant from the rest of her career.
3. “Always Remember Us This Way” (“A Star is Born,” 2018)
I know that we’re all supposed to love “Shallow” more. I have yet to tire of hearing it on the radio. With that said, I think it overshadows how much incredible music is on this album, which features some of her strongest work vocally to date. This isn’t just some Oscar bait material going on, it feels like she has made every note hold something deeper and more significant. It’s the type of work that elevated the film into the status of a modern masterpiece, reflecting a star in the making. With this film, she was about to become something greater, more charismatic. Gone were the days of working with Robert Rodriguez. Up next was the quest to win all the Oscars.
With all of this said, “Always Remember Us This Way” deserves more recognition on the soundtrack than it gets. The song has this tenderness to it that reflects on how a small friendship can bloom into this deeper romance, where you can’t find yourself living without them. With a catchy chorus to back it up, this song creates a perfect snapshot of love and realizing that as everything shuts down, we want to remember this relationship like it was at this moment.
It’s in the way that her voice manages to fall into a hush, or break out into a loud roar. It’s the type of song that sounds like a classic from the first listen. Every note is in place and the earnestness balances well with the nostalgia and self-reflection. It makes you feel sweet in the way that the best pop songs can. Because this film has the ability to be more than “Shallow,” the central story is capable of being more convincing. This isn’t just some lazy and obvious casting. This is a genuine showcase for Lady Gaga’s immense talents.
4. “Bad Romance” (“The Fame Monster,” 2009)
While “The Fame” was enough of a hit to make Lady Gaga a star, it didn’t have too many bona fide moments to suggest that she was here to stay. With her E.P. “The Fame Monster,” she expanded on her sound, using more professional production work to emphasize what made her a force to be reckoned with. Good luck finding any song in her entire songbook that has an opening as memorable as “Bad Romance,” which proudly declares her arrival with a booming voice that holds so much wonder inside of it.
From there, things begin to unwind and you begin to see what early Lady Gaga was like: a provocateur who was about making things as weird as possible. Her voice grows sadistic, the harmonies being layered on over this club beat, and soon she was making an inescapable hit. Songs like “Poker Face” and “Just Dance” were a prologue to what “Bad Romance” was achieving. It was going to jolt you to life with every note, even with the repetitive use of “Ra ra” that sounds dumb, but has the right level of being stuck in your head.
Sure you could make fun of her for being bold and vulgar, but there was something secretly powerful about her already in her career. It was in the endless amount of memorable lines in the song (“I’m a free bitch, baby!”), or how she juxtaposes Alfred Hitchcock movies into a verse, turning Rear Window (1954) into a euphemism (you can guess). Already she was playing with her image, and this was the most exciting, curious beat in her immediate success.
5. “Born This Way” (“Born This Way,” 2011)
With this song, Lady Gaga laid out her plans for the future of pop music. It was going to be one that was inclusive, embracing the weirdness of everybody. Why should they change the fact that they’re different from everyone else? They were “born this way.” It’s a straightforward song that finds her playing with breakdowns and builds that were manic but ultimately served to present a deeper purpose to her message. As she checklists everyone whether from a racial or sexual standpoint, you feel like the weight of her decision creating a bigger tidal wave for the decade ahead. This was where her “little monsters” were born, and the bawdy nature would reach its full potential.
It was also where Lady Gaga got her biggest criticism for ripping off Madonna, as portions were similar to Madonna’s “Express Yourself.” Also, her whole gimmick felt reminiscent of her constant reinvention, looking for ways to challenge the mainstream. This feud has served as nothing more than a quaint distraction. Maybe it’s true, but this is one of the best self-love empowerment songs to be released in the past decade, and one that did more good in the world than anyone expected this weirdo to do.
BONUS
“Telephone” (“The Fame Monster,” 2009)
Feat. Beyonce
Among Lady Gaga’s earliest duets was this song that found two powerhouses teaming up to create this jam about how we’re ignoring somebody trying to call us. While the sentiment may have shifted in recent years (what millennial even answers their phone?), at the time it was this manic and catchy song about how frustrating it was to constantly be bothered. Every last second of this captures Lady Gaga at her best, and Beyonce has rarely been as freewheeling as she is here, allowing herself to be the freakiest that she’s ever been. Together, they created a barnstormer that is a lot of fun and made all the more special since you see an alternate universe where Beyonce’s artistic side got to be as bizarre and out there as Lady Gaga’s. The world really missed out.
I know that it’s difficult to cut down Lady Gaga’s best work to a mere five song list, but that only shows how much talent she has had over her career. With “Chromatica,” I’m eager to see how she evolves with her next project, making grand leaps once again. Nobody asked her to, but she keeps doing it anyway. That’s what makes her exciting, and I can’t wait to find out what that sounds (and looks) like.
Also, you didn’t hear it from me, but The Memory Tourist will be writing about “ArtPOP” on Monday, if just to create a chaser for the “Chromatica” review, up on Thursday.
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