Friends. Family. Fans. It is finally here! Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated 4th solo album Joanne was released October 21st of this year. Many were exited as well as hesitant for Gaga’s reintroduction into the spotlight. With this event accompanied some concerns: Will her sound be different? Will the album live up to the hype? Will this album be more memorable than the high-concept ArtPop or her collaborated jazz album Cheek to Cheek? I will be the first to admit that ArtPop and Cheek to Cheek may have left casual Lady Gaga fans disappointed, but I also strongly believe that both albums are fantastic works of art and will be remembered later much more favorably than they are viewed now.
Anyone who has listened to Joanne so far now knows that they had no reason to worry. The music on the album does not follow a singular stylistic theme, but incorporates several genres into one melting pot, including folk, dance, jazz, rock and roll, country, and pop. As an avid Lady Gaga fan since 2008, I dove into Joanne and have not come up for air since. This album swallows up listeners through its intimate and personal melodies. Tracks like “Diamond Heart,” “A-Yo,” “Sinner’s Prayer,” and “Perfect Illusion” sound a little more like traditional upbeat Lady Gaga tracks with a pinch of country and folk influences married with electric rock. There are also some more raunchy songs like “John Wayne,” and “Dancin’ in Circles” on this album, but is it really a Lady Gaga album if there are not a few shocking songs peppered in the mix? Joanne also included songs which promote woman empowerment and acknowledge the unique bond of female friendship in the tracks, “Come to Mama,” “Grigio Girls,” and “Hey Girl” the latter on which she collaborated with Florence Welsh. There are also heavier emotional ballads that listeners can connect with on a deeper level; tracks like, “Angel Down,” “Million Reasons,” and title track “Joanne” have hauntingly beautiful lyrics and musicality. Finally, the closing bouncy track “Just Another Day,” which combines jazz and pop, sends off the listener with the comforting message that life goes on, through the good times and bad, and the importance to not be so hard on ourselves or get bogged down by a day’s events.
Over all, Joanne is very raw, intimate, and is much less avant-garde and conceptual than its predecessors. Not to say that Gaga’s past albums were not as genuine, but she is expressing herself and her ideas in a different way; artists are constantly developing and finding new voices to add to their chorus of a legacy. Joanne carries special significance to Lady Gaga since it is titled after her tragically deceased aunt Joanne, which also happens to be Gaga’s middle name. Middle names hold a personal connotation since they are not usually used in addressing people who they belong to; a middle name is the center of one’s private identity. Dedicated to friends, family, and her fans, Gaga poured out her soul and it took shape into Joanne.