Gaga Has Lost Her Lyrical Fire

[lance13 834]

[LaLuna 12,732]

Personally I like the lyrics and I find them more relatable than on her other albums. 

Plus I feel on Chromatica she didn't try to be clever and serve convoluted lyrics like "We are not just art for Michelangelo
To carve. He can't rewrite the agro of my furied heart." 

[Michael Baram 330]

I think she grew up and got tired of lyrics you think are her greatest (which I do agree with) but her style changed, not her talent, passion or fire. Chromatica lyrics are mostly fantastic, with a few obvious exceptions... and I’ll say what I did when Joanne came out, if you miss Born This Way, listen to it. It’s great. Don’t expect her to repeat herself and enjoy the journey, or don’t! That’s fine too, but she’s not going to write like she did when she was 25 and growth is natural and positive.

[President Biden 5,898]

I still enjoy the album but i agree.

 

Her lyrics have a different evolution now. Joanne & Chromatica lyrics are very straightforwars & understandable. TFM & BTW sometimes idrk the lyrics ebent

[freebit 6,069]

Actually, she's become a bit more focused and refined. Before she was very everything-but-the-kitchen-sink with her lyricism, she still is a maxmimilst, but its less chaotic. BTW-era Gaga could not have come up with a song like 911 IMO, at least not without making it more clunky. 

[Ladle Ghoulash 11,301]

On 6/1/2020 at 4:12 PM, jprince99x said:

Before everyone starts dragging me, please hear me out.

The lyric that everyone touts on chromatica is this:

"This is my dancefloor I fought for"

If you keep reading,

This is my dancefloor I fought for
A heart, that's what I'm livin' for
So light up my body and kiss me too hardly
We own the downtown, hear our sound

I say that I want it, want it (Be free)
Don't fight it, fight it
But if I'm gonna go for it
I'll remember that, that
I say that I want it, want it (Be free)
Don't fight it, fight it
But if I'm gonna go for it
I'll remember that, that

These lyrics just don't flow whatsoever when you read them. Personally I want lyrics to read like a sentence. Here is an excerpt of one of my favourite songs:

"The bridle bends in idle hands
and slows our canter to a trot.
We mean to stop, in increments, but can’t commit. We post and sit, in impotence:
the harder you hit, the deeper the dent.
We seek our name.
We seek our fame, and our credentials
(paned in glass, trained to master incidentals). Bleach our collar, leach our dollar from our cents: the longer you live, the higher the rent."

I understand that this is completely not pop style, but Gaga's lyrics on this album don't have an ounce of that flow that I desire from lyrics. It just feels like she wrote the lyrics in 10 minutes then completely forgot about them (and that's what she's known for doing)

I guess I'm just burdened because I literally don't listen to any modern pop music except for gaga. I listen to folk, classical, and oldies 24/7. 

I was playing Chromatica for my brother. He pointed out to me that all he hears when he listens is just "I me love etc.", when I listen back to the album she emphasizes these words too much. Like on Fun Tonight, the only words that pop out on the prechorus are "I" and "You" . It just feels like some aspects of her songwriting are being reduced to fit the genre/style.

Just look at lyrics from one of the b sides on BTW, heavy metal lover:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I want your whiskey mouth all over my blonde south
Red wine, cheap perfume, and a filthy pout

Tonight bring all your friends, because a group does it better
Why river with a pair?
Let's have a full house of leather

Dirty pony, I can't wait to hose you down
You've got to earn your leather in this part of town

Dirty pearls and a patch for all the Rivington Rebels
Let's raise hell in the streets, drink beer and get into trouble

Whip me, slap me, punk funk
New York clubbers, bump drunk
Bud Lite, liquors, bar slam
Move it, this is your jam
Wash the night with St. Jame-son
Like a baptism, heavy metal lovers play
Baby, we were born this way

 

This has so much lyrical density, so much fire. And sadly I don't think that she wrote with that same fire on chromatica.

The only song that I feel that "fire" from is Babylon, and even that song is overtaken by lines that don't make sense to me

"Body's moving like a sculpture"

how does a body move like a sculpture? Sculptures are completely still, they don't move 

here are some lyrics that attack some of the same themes that gaga does in chromatica:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

"In martial wind, and in clarion rain,
we minced into battle, wincing in pain;
not meant for walking, backs bound in twine: not angel or devil,
but level, in time.

And I rose, to take my shape at last,
from the dreams that had dogged me, through every past, when, to my soul, the body would say
You may do what you like,
as long as you stay.

Now the towns and forests, highways and plains, fall back in circles like an emptying drain.
And I won’t come round this way again,
where the lonely wind abides,

and you will not take my heart, alive. You will not take my heart."

 

I think that the lyrics on Chromatica are okay. There are some lines that I actually quite enjoy, replay is fantastic. Overall, when I listen to the songs all I hear is lyrical "spice". I actually quite like some of the narratives she attacks in the songs, but I feel as if the final product isn't as on point as her earlier work. I really don't think that this dance pop is the type of music that Gaga is inspired to make. Joanne has so much more of that "fire". 

Maybe part of the issue is the production. I listened to 1000 doves 10+ times and hated it. The lyrics didn't touch me at all. After hearing them in the demo, I literally cried. (and not because of the music, I think that the piano is very weak. There are no dynamics whatsoever! I could actually hear what she was saying in the lyrics.) I defended Stupid Love's lyrics when many of you here trashed them. For some reason I hear the lyrics on this album and they feel inauthentic. I love this album, I love it. I adore it and have been listening NONSTOP since it came out. I understand that there is no "perfect" song out there. These are just some of my thoughts after a few days of listening.

EDIT:

Gaga's strengths show when she is out to prove herself as an artist. In chromatica gaga is trying to achieve something different, the lyrics are coming from a different place that she's never fully explored before. She isn't trying to prove anything on this record, she is trying to make sense of her life, sobriety, and fame. When you listen to these songs in solitude, they don't seem impactful like songs from Born This Way do. After reading many replies in this thread I began to think of chromatica as a whole, and the album lyrically came to focus a bit for me. I still think there is room for improvement. The "fire" is still there lyrically - maybe not in the songs, but definitely in their intention.

 

FINAL EDIT:

My final opinion is this: songs on chromatica come from a different headspace that does not include the fiery passion from her previous work. However, when you look at chromatica as a whole, some of the fire is evident - not in the lyrics, but in the intentions of the songs. I define “fire” as being feisty/badass/gutsy/rebellious and inspired

Girl, you did NOT just try and compare Gaga to Joanna Newsom 🙃 so insanely different 

[Ladle Ghoulash 11,301]

8 hours ago, freebit said:

Actually, she's become a bit more focused and refined. Before she was very everything-but-the-kitchen-sink with her lyricism, she still is a maxmimilst, but its less chaotic. BTW-era Gaga could not have come up with a song like 911 IMO, at least not without making it more clunky. 

Completely agreed. I think she attacks the subject matter in a direct way, as opposed to trying to layer it in metaphor upon metaphor, symbol upon symbol

[ActLikeStr8 18]

some gaga lyrics is weird and formulaic

u cant understand. the point is u can just enjoy the music