This album seems to have been rushed. The production is decent but Gaga forgot to come up with melodies with her lyrics.
Alice. The only good thing about it is when she sings "my name is Alice". The bridge is fucking awful. The beat is okay.
Stupid Love. First single. Considerably better than Alice. The production is okay, the melody is bleh. The song sounds like a leftover from Born this way. Sounds better with repeated listens.
Rain one Me. To be honest. One of the stronger songs on this album. The beat (which is sampled) is actually good and Gaga and Ariana's vocal mesh well together. There seems to have been an effort in the melody. Overall a good effort, not a great one.
Free Woman. The first verse sounds very good (but extremely annoying when her voice goes TO BE FREE). Then the song goes nowhere. The melody is unmemorable. The beat sounds like something I heard before. Very average.
Fun Tonight. Instrumentation is okay. The melody seems to be at times very similar if not the same as Free Woman. The ending is underwhelming. Reminds me a bit of "The Edge of Glory".
911 - Production is good. I am quite unclear what is the verse vs chorus on this. LOL but I assume what I think is the chorus to be the best part. Overall it could be better but still one of the best tracks on the album.
Plastic Doll. It sounds promising at first. The lyrics are decent AT THE BEGINNING but her vocals do nothing for me. The melody is unmemorable. Lyrically the song starts out good but get so bad at the end, it becomes borderline offensive. The chorus is pretty awful. The song like few others on her starts off pretty promising and then lead on to something worse. Her voice at the end becomes grating.
Sour Candy. Surprisingly one of my favorite on this album (and that's saying something). The vocals from Blackpink (I have no idea who these members are) are good and the sampled beat is good. Gaga's part is semi forgettable though. Her part sounds like Ava Max's torn and she sounds like Ava Max's evil grandma with a lot deeper voice. LOL. It also reminded me a bit of Government Hooker but not near as good.
Enigma. Super gay. Vocally the strongest track. The production is good. Again a forgettable melody. Overall a typical 90s track with a bombastic chorus. Despite that the song fails to go all in. There is restraint there which is a problem because it could have been longer and larger.
Replay. Starts of well but becomes a HUGE MESS. The lyrics are repetitive. The beat here sounds like on a few other songs. Pretty underwhelming song. The bridge is interesting lyrically. Her vocals are underwhelming and annoying at the same time on this song.
Sine from Above. Her singing here becomes vocal exercising. No emotion. The beat from 1:32 is good. Elton's singing is hilarious. The instrumentation is the highlight here. From 2:15 it seems like they are arguing with each other. At times it sounds like a Jesus worship song. The ending is nice but totally unfit for this particular song. LOL.
1000 Doves. The song starts of well but then goes into the same direction as so many of the other songs. Same repetitive sound. A lot of vocal gimmicks and exercises but fails to emote like so many times before.
Babylon. The most interesting song on this sonically. Sounds like late 80s early 90s. I hear a bit of Vogue, Rescue me and Dear Jessie on this. Actual effort was put into the production here. Lyrically bleh.
Babylon, Rain on Me, Sour Candy and 911 were the best songs. The rest forgettable. The interludes were good LOL.
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Reply by High King
on May 28, 2020 at 10:47 PM
Yeah when it comes to melodies something does seem to be missing. On first listen it’s definitely one of the most cohesive albums I’ve heard in a while, none of the songs are bad.
But you like Stupid Love better than Alice? Really? That’s definitely an unpopular opinion.
Reply by Gfe
on May 28, 2020 at 10:54 PM
People seem to love Alice but like I said, only parts of it I like. The thing is, the album may be cohesive but each song is not. Stupid love is a more cohesive song and semi catchy. While parts of Alice I like more than Stupid Love, overall the song seems like so many on this album seem unfinished.
Reply by KennBoy
on May 28, 2020 at 11:12 PM
"Alice" is FIRE, sis. I LOVE the "Take me home" part.
My favs are:
Alice (TAKE ME...home)
911 (THAT transition)
Sour Candy (BLACKPINK'S song)
Enigma (makes me feel like I'm high on coke)
Replay
Babylon.
The songs I hate, I REALLY hate, and the songs I love I really love. This isn't a perfect record by any means. It's not very inspired, but it's her best since 2011.
Reply by BTJ
on May 29, 2020 at 3:06 AM
The tracks are boring.
The only ones id listen to again are Free Woman and 911.
It's very early 90sish with some late 90s early 2000s trance house thrown in and thats not a bad thing but here the tracks sound repetitive and blend in with eachother way too much.
I guess you could call it cohesive which it is however there is a way to be cohesive without each song sounding the same.
See "Confessions on a Dancefloor" as an example of an album where the songs sound like related cousins instead of identical twin sisters. Conessfions is cohesive to the point that every song blends into eachother yet still stand alone as great tracks that you could tell apart from one another.
Another thing I noticed was the horrible lyrics. Gaga's lyrics are so very juvenile for a woman in her mid 30s.
I think my issue with Gaga is her voice just isn't very pop anymore. It's more adult contemporary now. What happened to The Fame and BTW style? Maybe her voice has always been adult contemporary and she just winged it when she first came out to sound more popish ?
Reply by Stacey101
on May 29, 2020 at 8:04 AM
It sounds like a night out in the club non-stop. It’s not bad but it gets tiring and a little variety would have been nice.
The gays are eating it up for sure though.
Reply by Gfe
on May 29, 2020 at 8:49 AM
Critics are liking it but the reviews seem to be mostly about Gaga and the themes as opposed to quality of the songs but then again music reviewers these days seem to like anything (as long as it's not completely banal) I mean look at Halsey and Selena Gomez. NME just gave this banal Icelandic hip hop group whose music is garbage 4/5. I can't!!!!! Lets not forget NME is the magazine that trashed Iggy azela's The new classic album by barely mentioning the actual album and the music on it. Guardian gave Radiohead's Kid A, An album which is regarded as one of the greatest of all time 2 out of 5.
The NME review The record is littered with catchy choruses and glossy production – but it goes deeper than that. ‘Chromatica’ is “about healing and it’s about bravery”, she explained before the album came out, adding: “sound is what healed me in my life period, and it healed me again making this record”. You can certainly hear that. From the exhilarating melodies to the positive, hope-filled lyrics, ‘Chromatica’ is a celebration – and a well-deserved one at that.
Exhilarating melodies? What melodies? Catchy choruses? some of the songs didn't even have them. Did these reviewers even listen to the album.
The guardian review basically trashes majority of the album yet still gives it 4/5. I mean I can't!!!!! Is everyone in pity mode these days. Is this the result of the Pandemic.
Reply by snoho
on May 29, 2020 at 2:44 PM
Alice, 911, Sour Candy, and Babylon were the most tolerable to me. Rain on Me is the best track from this project so far.
I don't know why she bothered working with Elton, when she has such a wide range of fresher artists at her finger tips. Overall, it doesn't feel like her heart is really in this; very generic EDM Gaga on autopilot.
The vinyl releases are fucking shocking.
Reply by Stacey101
on May 29, 2020 at 4:40 PM
Alice is such a bop though, deffo a guilty pleasure of mine.
Reply by KennBoy
on May 29, 2020 at 5:05 PM
Alice is the breakout no one expected. In love.
Reply by BTJ
on May 29, 2020 at 5:24 PM
My opinion of the album is the same but I do like Replay.
Reply by PlasticPrada
on May 29, 2020 at 8:34 PM
I find Gaga's type of dance pop to just be boring at this point. At least when it's an entire album and generic at that. Lot of songs I hear H&M blasting. 911 sounds exactly like Dua's Hallucinate.
Sour Candy is great until Gaga comes in. There's just something about her voice. Maybe the smoking? Idk it's becoming very manly. Compare it to TF/M and BTW and it's like two different voices. Outside ROM, Sour Candy, and Alice I'm feeling very MEH about the album. It's definitely her best since BTW (not saying much) but it's just not clicking for me.
Reply by SpaceBound
on May 30, 2020 at 1:07 PM
Alice needs a video and a European radio release next, instant love for that one. Rain On Me, Replay and Enigma are really good too.
On the other hand, Sine From Above, 1000 Doves and Free Woman are AWFUL. That watered down, ultra generic production is just unacceptable.
Reply by SpaceBound
on May 30, 2020 at 2:57 PM
I'm trying to find out where "positive, hope-filled lyrics" can be found - it's lyrically her most depressing album by far.