Joanne
IN A NUTSHELL:
Recommended for:
Die-hard Gaga fans
Those who appreciate a stellar vocalist
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Pros:
Powerful vocal performances
Honest and bare creative expression
Cons:
sometimes forgettable songwriting
Joanne is the fifth studio album from American singer Lady Gaga. It was released October 21st, 2016 through Streamline and Interscope Records. Gaga collaborated with several producers on the record, including Mark Ronson, Jeff Bhasker, Bloodpop, and Red One. The music on this album features “stripped-down” soft rock and pop styles in order to emphasis the singer's vocal abilities.
Photo by: Disney/ABC Television Group
Lady JaJa:
I had fairly high expectations for this album when the list of names of people who worked on Joanne started to come out. Some names include Mark Ronson, Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine), and Josh Tillman (Father John Misty). Ultimately, this album did not live up to the hype for me, but it was not a complete letdown of any sort.
I admire what Lady Gaga was trying to do with this album. Joanne is definitely more organic and natural sounding than her previous albums. Overall, the production is a little more subdued and focused on live instruments rather than electronic ones. Don’t get me wrong, this is still 100% a pop album, but it is the most bare and honest Gaga album so far. This is good and bad because of that.
The good part is Lady Gaga’s voice is able to shine in a way that it hasn’t been able to on her previous album. Gaga’s vocals are put front and center in each song, and there’s minimal effects or overdubs added over them. Because of that, Lady Gaga is finally able to show her full range, and she nails it hard. Gaga’s vocal performances on Joanne are straight up phenomenal. I dare you to listen to a song like “Sinner’s Prayer” or “Come to Mama” and not be wowed by Gaga’s voice.
The bad outcomes of the sound of this album is it isn’t able to save otherwise forgettable songs from being forgettable. To make myself clearer, when a song lacks particularly memorable songwriting, really flashy, unique, or tasteful production can save a song from being forgettable. Take 90% of trap songs for example. You don’t remember those songs because that rapper was spitting hard, you remember it because that beat is dope af. This all does not apply to Joanne, though. There are a handful of pretty unmemorable songs on here, and because the production is fairly bare, these songs can sound a little bland or uninteresting.
This album was a mixed bag overall. We get to hear the most honest version of Lady Gaga yet, and we get to hear some stellar vocal performances in the process. However, her voice cannot save the album from some fairly lackluster songwriting.
Favorite song: “Come to Mama”
6/10
Photo by: celebrityabc
Mom:
The new Gaga, let’s hit it.
This album is her first in two years, following Cheek to Cheek. If you are a huge Gaga fan, I am going to bore you for a bit, and you can skip this first paragraph. Anyhow, if you are anything less than an avid Gaga nerd you might not be aware of her current direction. Lady Gaga wanted fame and got it. Once “Pokerface” hit the airwaves, she went from an up-and-coming to a full blown pop star, and she’s stayed there. Gaga prides herself in being a “student of fame”, and having the knowhow to stay relevant in America’s pop/celeb scene. However, years after the meat dress and fame’s short honeymoon phase, Gaga is over it. In recent interviews the singer is heard expressing a desire to “start saying no”. She no longer wants to pose for pictures and make companies money. The new Gaga is doing what she wants, and this album is proof. Gaga was not always known for her powerful, pristine vocals, considering her early work was heavily produced. But, nowadays everyone is pretty aware of Lady Gaga’s pipes following more mature musical ventures in jazz and her Sound of Music tribute at the Oscars.
Now, we move to her new album. This album makes perfect sense considering her history. This collection is her most sincere work yet. The songwriting is stronger than her previous works. But beyond that, her vocals are particularly interesting. Lady Gaga has the potential of releasing flawless tracks, so perfect that you forget a human actually sang it.This all being said, this album purposely uses sloppier vocals. On “Joanne”, the albums’s title track, the verses are sung in a relaxed style as if you are sitting with her at home, hearing a new song she is working on. The chorus of this song contrasts in clean belting fashion. These minor flaws, give the album some flavor it needs, but can be somewhat distracting. There are a few typical ‘singer/songwriter with an acoustic’ tracks on the album, but also some vintage Gaga. The artist never lost interest in churning out dance-pop songs, and this album has its fair share. But, the album is interesting for the fact that you get both sides of the coin- folky and dance.
Lastly, this album is not without some noteworthy flaws. The song “Come to Mama” is crap. It follows one of the album’s best tracks in “Sinner’s Prayer”. The first line is “everybody’s got to love each other, stop throwing stones at your sisters and your brothers”. So that happened. So yeah, there are a few poorly written songs thrown in alongside the good ones. Though this album was not a huge success, it is what she wanted to do, and I believe it is her most interesting album yet. I have gone back more than a few times to listen to it. You will start to hear at least one of this album’s songs on the radio, if you have not already.
Favorite Track(s): “Sinner’s Prayer” or “Joanna”
7/10
Magicfingers:
This album was a bit of a rollercoaster. If you were looking for some classic, early days, Gaga catchy radio-pop songs, you might be a little disappointed. If you were looking for an extremly art packed, meaningful display of Gaga’s singing ability, that’s sort of what we have here. But you might still be a little disappointed because the reality is that this album felt like some sort of mashup of Gaga trying to do both of these things.
There were a few cool songs on this things. “John Wayne” should get your drunk girlfriends dancing just as easily as “Poker Face” did, but wasn’t quite as memorable stylistically. Songs like “Joanne” and “Angel Down” attempt to show off her incredible vocal ability by stripping away a little more production, but honestly I don’t think they took it far enough. Those songs could’ve been stripped down even farther for a better result in my opinion.
Other parts of this album were oozing of influences from one too many different genres of music. Gaga seems to take her shot at pop, rock, country, soul music and everything in between. I would have liked to see her hone in on just one or two of these and create a more unique style within the genres.
The lyrics were split about 50/50. Half seemed to be extremely personal and meaningful expressions of her own thoughts and experiences. The other half seemed cheesy, cliche and over-used.
Overall I’m pointing out a lot of flaws… but that’s because my expectations were high. Gaga is an incredible vocalist and a classically trained musician. This album was certainly enjoyable and a lot better than most mainstream female singer pop albums. And I appreciate the effort that is evident, Gaga clearly wanted to make something creative and fresh, and I would say she succeeded. But I won’t be adding these songs to any of my playlists.
Favorite Songs: “Just Another Day”, “John Wayne”
6.2/10
NEXT ALBUM: "The End of Comedy"
By: Drugdealer
Our team is comprised of some semi-normal, occasionally funny people who love to listen to and talk about music. And like many of you, we constantly find ourselves hungry to discover new music.