NYT: Lady Gaga, the Flashy Provocateur, Battles Lady Gaga, the Raw Voice

[ANVEEROY 61,118]

The juxtaposition was disorienting. This show, the first United States stop of her new tour, highlighted the tensions that bedevil Lady Gaga, especially at this stage of her career. She is titanic when it comes to huge smears of feeling, and also to pulverizing disco-pop. She radiates rawness, and is facile with costuming. But all of these things don’t always go hand in hand, and often Lady Gaga finds herself in various tugs of war with herself — sincerity versus artifice, extravagance versus asceticism, and so on.

The concert’s first half was disjointed, shifting styles and attitudes seemingly at random. But about midway through, Lady Gaga struck a rhythm, after three bulbous pods hovering near the roof of the arena cleaved to reveal footbridges that descended to the floor, forming a path she could traverse, with stops at two small circular platforms along the way, from the main stage to a smaller one at the far end of the room.

There aren’t likely to be many more bracing displays of vocal verve in an arena setting this year, or any other. Her performance was tragic and yet full of hope, warm, wounded and ecstatic. It embodied this singer at her best, serving as a conduit for profound feeling. That continued on two later songs from “Joanne”: “Angel Down” and “Million Reasons,” which she sang at the piano, and sometimes standing atop it.

Lady Gaga made her name with ostentation, ironic flamboyance and pseudo performance art. That strangeness once gave her centrist disco-pop real teeth, but it has long since decayed. Throughout the night, during her most effervescent hits, she was flanked onstage by a dozen or so dancers, who largely served as a kind of visual starch, frenetic but undistinguished, moving a lot but communicating little.

Older hits like “Paparazzi” and “Telephone” still had pizazz, but they paled when compared with the moments when Lady Gaga took the show into her own hands. It all suggested a molting on the horizon. Take away the dancers, the ornamentation, the arched-eyebrow provocation and leave only the pain — a show solely devoted to elegantly rendered bruises might be peak Gaga.

More @ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/arts/music/lady-gaga-joanne-tour-review.html

[The Surrealist 27,470]

I see no lies.

[ViviLittleM 3]

They hate her... nothing new

[ANVEEROY 61,118]

Just now, Dale Cooper said:

I see no lies.

[ShockPop 7,747]

It's hard to even fathom which parts I should believe.

This writer needs to improve at their job. Using a smattering of fancy words in place of a comprehensive paragraph of sentences is an amateur display in journalism.

[The Surrealist 27,470]

1 minute ago, Anveeroy said:

You don't think her songs are disjointed? That she shifts style and attitude randomly?

[Fame IV 4,426]

Call Gaga's art "pseudo performance art" when you're not on the level of pseudo journalism.

[ANVEEROY 61,118]

1 minute ago, Dale Cooper said:

You don't think her songs are disjointed? That she shifts style and attitude randomly?

Yes, I completely agree with that.

[gagagoogoose 30,952]

[The Surrealist 27,470]

3 minutes ago, ViviLittleM said:

They hate her... nothing new

Not NYT but the writer. He is probably a Madonna stan. Apparently he is the only writer about Gaga and he tries to bash her in every single article, but he made some points this time.

[asana15 16,648]

It's the same guy Jon Caramanica who reviewed "Joanne" the album. Gaga responded to his review with a tweet that I can't find. It was "Just ignore him. He was always like that" , along those lines. 

I think the same answer applies here. Clearly, the man is on a mission.

NYT bothered to send a journalist on a trip across the country to review her first US show. That's what's important here. 

 

[Miel 15,009]

I don't necessarily disagree with him, but the prose gives me some weird overall bias against her.

Also, why is it with a lot of her tours, her main criticisms happen when she does US stops? Not that criticisms are bad, per se, but it's very apparent when she does legs in other countries, gets praised, then does legs in the US, and lowkey gets dragged in comparison.

[SlayGagaloo 16,152]

Can NYT **** off with their disgusting reviews of her albums and now, tour?

Pathetic. 

 

[CalixSpurius 540]

Guys, this journalist is an OGH. Look at his previous work: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/arts/music/25feminism.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/arts/music/review-lady-gaga-joanne.html

Also this is the guy: 

[ANVEEROY 61,118]

But why they reviewed this show so quickly? I was waiting for NYC shows.