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TLOBF 'Joanne' Review 'Gaga restores shaken faith'


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Rating: 7.5/10 (Counts for Metacritic)

'Lady Gaga is an evocative name in music, occupying her own uncontested space and wildly dividing opinion since her sudden arrival way back in 2008.

For some, her name is a shorthand for a cover version, someone who is a deft and calculated impersonator, a mere product of her very clear influences. For others, she’s an innovative pop icon, a charismatic force and a jolt to the senses in a beige plateau of cookie cutter popstrels. For many others, she’s both.

Gaga commands different personas to various degrees of effectiveness but can sometimes be plagued by accusations of willful insincerity for employing an alternative guise (while male musicians are afforded full artistic license to play with identity). Though she is fully within her own rights to experiment with character, the difficulty comes when some of these identities feel less fully realised than others. To wit, her last effort, 2013'sARTPOP, was met with criticism largely undue, though it seemed to show her drowning in her own ideas and pretensions of what she perceived true artistry to be. A lot was thrown at the wall but not a lot stuck. It packed some incredible punch and spawned fantastic singles but it felt like Gaga was hunting for an idea, a conceit to pin herself to. It didn't appear totally truthful.

When she missteps, it often seems to be a result of over-thinking, of focusing on concept rather than music, of obsessing over the delivery and forgetting the contents, of adopting a guise that doesn't quite fit; like a conscious effort to be "A Pop Star", which renders her almost as a Josie and the Pussycats creation by a cartoon music mogul and everything she claims to want to avoid in her own expression. Conversely, when she's at her best, when she simply finds it - "Paparazzi", "Applause", "Bad Romance", "The Edge Of Glory" - it comes with killer choruses, effortless melodies and undeniable hooks. Everything falls into place by virtue of its own effortlessness; it's real, unforgettably thrilling, gutsy pop. '...

LINK: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/lady-gaga-joanne

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djBuffoon

Probably the most fair-minded review so far. :applause: Still, I get the impression they're lowballing her. 

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LetsGetHigh

Agreed. But guys don't pay too much attention to Metacritic. Gaga's BTW is her best album, not up for discussion hunties so don't tryna @ me, and it got 71 while TFM has 78. It's not always a true indication.

And you know damn well which album many publications honor on May 23 of every year.

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SummerGirl21
1 hour ago, LetsGetHigh said:

Agreed. But guys don't pay too much attention to Metacritic. Gaga's BTW is her best album, not up for discussion hunties so don't tryna @ me, and it got 71 while TFM has 78. It's not always a true indication.

And you know damn well which album many publications honor on May 23 of every year.

lol at you claiming BTW is her best album as if it is fact. 

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