COVID-19 shutdowns may have delayed its debut, but Lady Gaga’s Chromatica is finally here and with plenty of fanfare. Many of the songs may even become a soundtrack to counteract the chaos and pain all around us.
The album burst onto the music scene on May 29 with a music video for Rain On Me, spotlighting Ariana Grande. Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande collaborated on the long-awaited single, Rain on Me. The duet by Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga, “Rain on Me,” is about making it through a tough time. The song has echoes of the Nineties Rhythm and Blues with a strong beat. And, the remaining songs on the album capture sound like you may never have heard before.
Lady Gaga is an Oscar winner who has stunned, shocked, and delighted onlookers from the start. Her latest album returns to a sound of where she began, with electro-pop. She didn’t foresee a pandemic to be the backdrop of her latest release, but it forms the perfect setting to unleash a dance-floor moving beat with lyrics that let you know you’re not alone even at your loneliest moments.
Since her start with the sound of “Just Dance”, she has weaved in and out of stunning styles and has shown the world that she can step into any look with glamour whether she is donning big hair and bopping to pop, enjoying a bit of jazz, light rock ballads, or belting a Hollywood spectacular sensation. On her newest album, she expresses a bit of every genre showing off every side of herself and allowing us a peek inside of who she really is.
With Chromatica, we get to see a glimpse of the real Lady Gaga. She expresses her many sides of romance, funny sense of humor with a bit of flirty gossip undertones. More noticeable is her need for healing after being hurt. Lyrics like, “I’m still something if I don’t get a man” reach into the heart of the pain and expose the truth of her heart’s cry as it moves you to want to find the nearest dance floor which she has certainly earned the right to own.
Lady Gaga says the sound is what Chromatica represents since she believes the sound, the music, and being herself brought healing to her especially after a breakup. She expresses herself through a bad breakup. She wants to express how important it is to understand that it takes a whole lot of bravery to deeply and truly love someone.
Chromatica is the sixth studio album for Lady Gaga. The cover art represents a planet of Chromatica where equality rules and a state of mind where all colors and sounds mix. The term, chromatic, can refer to color, but it is also a term used in music. A chromatic scale is one that uses notes that do not belong to the diatonic scale of the key in which it is written. The cover art is reflective of the mathematical symbol for sound, called a sine wave. Lady Gaga explains that sound healed her of the pain following a breakup. Chromatica is about inclusivity as a way of life and thinking.