Girls and gays, rejoice! After a month-and-a-half delay, Lady Gaga’s 16-song album has finally been released. Some critics have already called Chromatica Gaga’s best album in a decade, perhaps because Gaga is more Gaga than she has ever been.
Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, rose to fame with her clubby dance hit “Just Dance” in 2010, followed soon after by “Born This Way.” The singer’s other-worldly, enigmatic and raw-meat-wearing persona solidified her reputation as an icon of the LGBTQ community early on. But her image as a quirky pop icon shifted throughout the last decade, when she dabbled in country music and pursued acting in A Star is Born. Her last album, Joanne, was released nearly four years ago and generated decent reviews, but nothing like the craze of her late 2010s music. In many ways, the weirdness of Gaga— what had initially made her so groundbreaking and fresh— appeared to be dead.
All of that has changed with this new album, which includes collabs with Ariana Grande and Elton John. The editorial team at Chaos+Comrades chose the top five songs on the album. We based our rankings on what the album was meant to achieve: to be a dance-pop masterpiece that took Gaga back to her queer and clubby roots.
1. SOUR CANDY (Ft. BlackPink)
This song deserves praise even if it wasn’t a bop- Gaga’s PR team recognized the impact that K-Pop has on an international audience and capitalized on it in this bass-heavy tune. Reminiscent of Katy Perry’s “Swish, Swish” but somehow less problematic, “Sour Candy” is the upbeat cross-continental collab we needed.
2. BABYLON
The last song on the album, “Babylon” is arguably the most unapologetically queer song of the entire album. It samples Madonna’s “Vogue”, a bold choice for Gaga since she tried early in her career to distance herself from comparisons to Madonna. The incorporation of “Vogue” feels particularly relevant in the age of the FX award-winning drama Pose, which also samples the song in its intro, and the recent release of Legendary, an HBO reality ballroom competition.
3. RAIN ON ME (ft. Ariana Grande)
“Rain on me” is already a hit just one week after its release. Although the music video was filmed before the worldwide pandemic, its release felt accurately timed to reflect our current reality. Just a few days before the New York Times printed a front-page story that announced the grim milestone of nearly 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, the pop duo released this song about pain and resilience in the face of adversity.
4. FUN TONIGHT
The most sentimental song in the album, “Fun Tonight” feels more raw and honest in its emotions than the rest of the album. It also showcases Gaga’s vocal range as she says goodbye to what some have speculated to be her ex-fiance, Christian Carino. Definitely a song we’ll be crying to on the dancefloor at 4am once this pandemic thing is over.
5. PLASTIC DOLL
This song is some angsty dancefloor-type gold for anyone trying to get over a fuckboi (and aren’t we all?). The lyrics are a declaration— “don’t play with me/ It just hurts me/ I’m bouncin’ off the walls/ No, no, no, I’m not your plastic doll”— accompanied by some of the most high-pitched vocals of the entire album.