Lady Gaga reflects on her 2016 album, Joanne, and how it’s different from MAYHEM

[50 Ft Queenie 169]

9 hours ago, bim said:

Especially when the opening lyric of Chromatica was ‘could you pull me out of this alive’, to have the opening lyric of Mayhem be ‘there are no more tears to cry’ is making this new album feel incredibly inspiring. It’s hard work to get yourself out of those dark spaces and you can really feel how much she has grown over the last few years. I’m grateful she’s still here and there’s no greater gift than seeing her so happy lately. 

You get it!!!!!  Alice is a very special song to me & it helped me in a bad crisis, I”ll never understand the hate for chromatica on here & it makes me so sad.  the lyrics in those songs helped my PTSD. ” I'd rather be dry.. But at least I'm alive” That's a genius lyric.. How beautiful Is it? I tell myself that line if I'm ever slipping again.  
Alice & Disease are connected 

Edited March 18 by 50 Ft Queenie

[Diseased 23]

18 minutes ago, 50 Ft Queenie said:

You get it!!!!!  Alice is a very special song to me & it helped me in a bad crisis, I”ll never understand the hate for chromatica on here & it makes me so sad.  the lyrics in those songs helped my PTSD. ” I'd rather be dry.. But at least I'm alive” That's a genius lyric.. How beautiful Is it? I tell myself that line if I'm ever slipping again.  
Alice & Disease are connected 

911's lyrics make me hate myself less. It really has helped me during hard times.

[50 Ft Queenie 169]

2 hours ago, Diseased said:

911's lyrics make me hate myself less. It really has helped me during hard times.

You get it too  that one also helps doesn't it . Albums a gift imo 

[culturalbaptism 2,873]

15 hours ago, PartySick said:

This is such a bad take  

Diamond Heart promises a great ride, but A-No delivers piss. Truly sad. A Star Is Born Soundtrack is everything Joanne wishes to be. 

[CharlieCashmere 85]

18 hours ago, hELXIG said:

The more time goes on the more it becomes clear that her whole career she was creating characters to find her strength (but they were all her still) and ARTPOP was like the absolute peak of her creative escape. She did say at the time (paraphrasing here) that she doesn't want to be one artist, she wants to be every artist. And then after ARTPOP she kinda crashed out and realised she was actually doing herself harm, so she went so far the other direction trying to get back to her roots as a Stefani, a simple, family oriented, musician, that she kind of lost her 'artist' self and felt she was 'erasing' parts of her. But then obviously that didn't serve her either. This must lead us to her breakdown before Chromatica when she didn't know who she was or what her purpose was or why she should even stick around, which is where we get Replay, 911, Alice, basically the whole album

And it seems like now she's finally in a place where she's learnt exactly who she is, all the different versions of her that live inside her, and she's happy, confident and comfortable. No wonder so many people are saying this is the healthiest we've seen her in years!

I am SO happy for her and I really hope this time it's for real  

love this interpretation, i think it's spot on imo

[CharlieCashmere 85]

16 hours ago, casualmonster said:

I think Joanne was the album that she needed to make. Joanne just unfortunately have the status of being an LG x album because when looking at her discography now, it seems to serve as a transitional album between ARTPOP and ASIB, something like what Harlequin is to MAYHEM.

Although I do agree that sonically and lyrically it may not be her best but I dont think Joanne is inauthentic. Very much the opposite because Joanne is the start of her journey back to being LADY GAGA. MAYHEM is the ending of the trilogy which started with Joanne, at least from my perspective. 

agreed

[CharlieCashmere 85]

12 hours ago, Panchecco said:

2014-2018 are pivotal years in Gaga's career. After ARTPOP getting as criticized as it was, Joanne was a desperate plea to be perceived both as an artist and as a human being. At the time this album surprised me a lot but it never disappointed me. The disconnect I felt from her was due to her wanting to hide "Lady Gaga" by stripping herself down to just a singer songwriter as if that was all she was. What she ended up doing was putting on another costume a "non-Gaga" look that eventually didn't bring her as much joy as she would have wanted. What it did instead was help the general public to connect to the human being behind the aura and as she said it was a necessary step in her career. The Halftime Show, Coachella and ASIB all happening during this era is so important as it helped Gaga channel her 'persona' in a totally different way in front of a public that probably for the first time ever was finally seeing her. After this all time high with ASIB and the Ocars she felt so lost and I can see now that the Enigma residency was also a way to try and re-connect with her og fans. She ended up forcing herself to release Chromatica and dancing through the pain but Covid happened right as she started to finally feel like herself again but was still not fully there yet. In a way it was a blessing that the Chromatica Ball got postoponed as she took the time off to fully embrace her as an artist and a unique one at that. 

I am so proud and happy to see her so confident in herself again and bringing with her a new found fire and maturity that is once again inspiring me so much. I love her so much 

well said 

❤️

Edited March 19 by CharlieCashmere
:)

[GagaWayne 32]

19 hours ago, Donatello said:

Each album is gonna have a flaw and it's not a validation of your album rankings.

Ten years from now we'll be hearing "I let someone else's vision (Michael) make MAYHEM, it wasn't me".

True!

[PartySick 153,989]

On 3/18/2025 at 8:09 PM, culturalbaptism said:

Diamond Heart promises a great ride, but A-No delivers piss. Truly sad. A Star Is Born Soundtrack is everything Joanne wishes to be. 

My thoughts are with you in what appears to be a difficult time for you  

I'll spin A-Yo another time in your honor

Imagine not liking that classic rock licking up the spine of electronic music's rural sister.

[Ladle Ghoulash 19,893]

22 minutes ago, PartySick said:

My thoughts are with you in what appears to be a difficult time for you  

I'll spin A-Yo another time in your honor

Imagine not liking that classic rock licking up the spine of electronic music's rural sister.

A-Yo is a fckn bop. Great guitar riffs, vocals, and the chorus absolutely rips. 

[dracomalfoy 756]

On 3/18/2025 at 1:31 AM, Starmie25 said:

I still enjoy this album, but I wonder if she'd ever pull a "Taylor" and re-record Joqnne again. 

My main gripe is sonically the up-tempo tracks get a bit buried in the mix, plus there was just a lot of sadness within her voice and lyrics. 

when she rerecords Chromatica with actual finished lyrics 

[HotLikeMexico 5,029]

I feel she’s been saying this every album starting from Joanne. She’s going to say this about Mayhem when LG8 drops. 

Edited March 21 by HotLikeMexico

[Nagini 983]

On 3/18/2025 at 4:03 PM, 50 Ft Queenie said:

You get it!!!!!  Alice is a very special song to me & it helped me in a bad crisis, I”ll never understand the hate for chromatica on here & it makes me so sad.  the lyrics in those songs helped my PTSD. ” I'd rather be dry.. But at least I'm alive” That's a genius lyric.. How beautiful Is it? I tell myself that line if I'm ever slipping again.  
Alice & Disease are connected 

I don't really like Chromatica but that record is her most personal to date. If she released those songs on the piano vs. the final production mess we got, it would have been so much stronger to your point.

[XxBones 1,168]

On 3/17/2025 at 11:03 PM, Siena said:

How interesting it is to experience eras and then be able to see her reflect like this all those years later. I’ll admit I was 17 at the time and didn’t appreciate Joanne, but as I became an adult I have such love for this album and recognize how important is it to her growth. I think we could all tell something seemed off during the Joanne era, she seemed very broken, unsure of herself, and sad/very serious in most interviews. I’m so happy she’s in an amazing place and able to reflect so maturely on this era. 

I think it’s because Joanne is her breakup album. She did seem sad and the first single was perfect illusion. She convinced everyone that perfect illusion is about the illusions of social media but lyrically you can tell she wrote it after her breakup with Taylor that happened I think the same year. She was running away from “Gaga”. It’s nice to see her in a happy relationship again and mayhem reflects it. I agree tho that getting older you can appreciate it more the rawness of the music and I can tell why Gaga is distancing herself now because it’s like a time capsule and it might not always bring back the best feelings for her. 

[LateToCult 40,731]

Album was straight ass. Perfect Illusion, Ayo, and Diamond Heart are some of her worst songs ever and the only people that like them are all in this thread. 0 high points like in her other albums. 

Edited March 24 by LateToCult