In its own way, Lady Gaga's latest album, Joanne, is a portrait of what should be at a time when it's so hard to stomach what is. You could use any number of words to describe the cultural moment we're stuck in — dizzying, frantic, desperate, traumatic, loud, relentless. One that typically doesn't come up is "conversational."

There's no room for exchange, no back-and-forth that isn't cacophonous. We're trapped in a political screaming match. We're listening not to understand, but to retaliate. Although it was a deeply personal endeavor, Gaga's creation of the record shows a willingness to reach across the aisle. It's a concept we hardly recognize anymore.

Last year, she told tales from America's greatest songbook alongside Tony Bennett. This time, the artist draws from blues-soaked, country-tinged motifs that are distinctly and unabashedly American.

Far from the raging electro anthems for which the singer is known, Joanne is filled to the brim with roaring, honest tracks that strike universal chords. While themes of inclusivity and disobedience are on-message with Gaga's philosophy, her delivery is in uncharted territory. It fills a conversational space that often feels vacuous.

When speaking about the album, Gaga has a spectator in mind. In an interview for The Sunday Times, she explains that the listener living in her head is "in Middle America with hair pulled back and no makeup and jewelry heirlooms from her family, a sweatshirt you'd buy at the drugstore, a kid in one hand, pinot grigio in the other... you don't know if she's married.

"But she's at my show crying her eyes out because she feels I'm speaking to her."

Since her rise, Gaga has made a concerted effort to stay in touch with her biggest fans. She's gone back and forth with followers of Top 40 charts and pop devotees the world over. Her leather-clad, teal-haired base has historically fallen to the political left.

This time, however, she reaches out to someone with whom she's never really spoken — the mom who's just trying to get her kids through school. The father who's falling further right of his son by the minute. She's stringing threads across chasms, spinning a web that anyone could get wrapped up and lost in.

Gaga's signature raucousness certainly isn't lost on Joanne. Songs like "Perfect Illusion," "A-Yo" and "Dancin' in Circles" are destined for late nights spent spinning around piles of bags and shoes. Free-spirited anthems like "John Wayne" are meaty enough for any listener to sink their teeth into. "Diamond Heart," another standout, rumbles with relatable themes of self-acceptance and joy in the face of trauma.

The title track is a one-take ride through a family tragedy that invites you to sit and watch someone wrap her hands — her father's hands — around loss. Although Gaga is no stranger to acoustic tracks, there's something different about Joanne. It's a catch in her throat that you feel start to feel in the back of your own.

Nowhere is the art of conversation celebrated more explicitly, however, than it is in "Hey Girl," an homage to womanhood told through a seemingly improvised back-and-forth between herself and Florence Welch. Again, Gaga reaches out and again, she grabs onto something vital.

Beyond that, though, there are traces of an artist — a woman, a person — run ragged.

"Angel Down," which resonates in a nation marred by senseless violence, comes at a time when criminal justice reform is an issue that must be met with unspeakable urgency. It comes at a time when the LGBTQ community falls under constant attack and women's suffrage is once again up for debate.

It comes at a time when oppression is somehow open to interpretation.

"I'm a believer. It's chaos. Where are our leaders?" Gaga asks over an aching, sparkling track. She does not politicize. She drives the song home in a common tongue. It is the language of grief checked by the promise of something better.

While not every song on the record is so pointed, the package deal extends an olive branch to those who have never connected with her before. Listening to Joanne isn't about drawing lines in the sand. There's a universality about the album that could not have come at a better time.

As one of her diehards, I know that nothing this woman does is accidental. That is the essence of her greatness. Gaga's relentless evolution is present and nuanced in polarizing times.

And by channeling her late Aunt Joanne, she reaches inside her own gut and hands fistfuls of herself to perfect strangers. She does exactly what we won't do out of fear, greed and prejudice. She is humble and real where we are proud and terrified.

Lady Gaga doesn't offer answers to our growing problems on this album. She doesn't draw road maps from point A to point B. The artist presents to us the prospect of unity with a simple change in delivery. What she gives us is a jumping-off place.

Joanne might not be flawless, but I know she's got a diamond heart.

Lady Gaga's best friend and upcoming fashion designer Brandon Maxwell has finally released his new collection during New York Fashion Week with the event streamed live on Periscope. Mother Monster has been very supportive of Brandon and showed up at the event wearing one of his dresses, telling fans, "I feel completely honored to be the first person to wear a custom piece from his first collection before it comes out. Love you, baby." They do have a strong connection, don't they? Earlier today Brandon talked to Vogue on what to expect from his debut show. "I've always been attracted to bold women and a bold look," he said. "I'm someone who really loves an energetic woman who has a story and puts on these strong clothes and does wonderful and amazing things."

Originally from Longview, TX, Maxwell has been named a "designer to watch" by Women Wear Daily. In his interview for the magazine, Maxwell confessed he is nervous that he wouldn't be taken seriously, as he had no formal training and is not a designer in the "technical sense."

By the looks of it, he shouldn't have been nervous at all. Simplicity was at its finest at the event. All of the looks were very cohesive, with sexy shoulder pads, beautiful cropped trousers, and loose efficient dresses that worked appropriately with what is in this season. Brandon managed to add a futuristic flare to the clothing- with adding curved layers on the bottom of a cherry blossom pink blouse. The true show-stopper came toward the end of the presentation with a stunning black gown with a huge velvet ball-like formation.

Although Brandon's designs didn't follow the color palette for Spring/Summer 2016, the collection did keep to the seamless innovation that has been speculated this season. "All I really wanted to achieve was the classic, timeless piece that a woman can spend a good amount of money on and that she will wear over time," the young designer says. "That was my goal, and I hope we accomplished that."

Maxwell surely did complete his goal, as his pieces can be worn in the present and in the future. What does Gaga have to say about the collection? According to InStyle, Gaga plans to show off these looks soon. "I can wear them any time, all the time," she insists. "They're for the woman who likes to be dressed well and who likes to enjoy things that are made well, and these clothes are made perfectly, down to every inch of your body. You don't have to worry when you zip it up that it won't hug you in just the right way because he's already decided the shape, and when you put it on, you become a part of that dress." 
   
Brandon told Longview Journal that "if the aesthetic has a foundational influence, it is to be found in Longview in a downtown women's clothing store where his grandmother worked called Riff's." What is so great about this collection is that it is vintage, yet it is new. By the looks of the women in the catwalk it gave the women power, an it gives women more character, as you can tell by how the clothes beautifully fit the models. 
   
Overall, this was a great debut show. Brandon gave us beautiful femme fatale Blazers, dramatic gowns, beautiful trousers, and a bright future for him in the fashion world. We cannot wait to see what Brandon will come up next, and how far he will come!

by Jose Arriaza

Before making my way to Manhattan that night, I couldn't help but feel odd about putting on a simple blue dress for a Gaga show. She's the only artist out there who can make total normalcy feel completely avant-garde. It was strange and exhilarating to stand outside of Radio City Music Hall and look out into a sea of people I'm used to seeing in leather and fishnets decked out in their finery. It was on the night of June 20th that my contemporary love affair with a pop star who knows no limits collided with the buzzing jazz-radio memories that live in my grandmother's kitchen.

The iconic venue met one of its most diverse crowds to date, with teal-haired Little Monsters swaying alongside the wiser crowd, who made soundtracks to entire lives with the Great American Songbook. Neither side knew what to make of the antitheses next to them, but just as Tony and Gaga proved the second the needle fell on Cheek to Cheek, this music is ageless. If you closed your eyes that night, not a single soul was separated by decades or difference.

The fact of the matter is that we all left that show knowing more than we did upon arrival — about music, about craft, and about what it takes to bring down a house with only talent to fall back on. With the lilting but powerful encouragement of Tony's time-tested ability, we little ones got to peer inside a time capsule of music history — a moment in history before charts and trends and sales dictated what was worthy. The more seasoned set, on the other hand, witnessed an addition to that capsule in the form of a contemporary music anomaly, who will withstand the test of time and be there when the next generation is given an opportunity to look inside. It will wait there unopened until the industry is ready to have these conversations again.

In fact, the entire evening was a conversation of sorts. The theater hummed with the promise of exchange. Tony and Gaga shared the spotlight when two voices were better than one, and split it when one of them needed to punctuate the conversation with a stunning monologue. The two-hour set — absolutely prolific in its reach — read like the delicate passing of musical torches. 

None of us were worried about Gaga's graces, but the relief felt by Tony's lifelong fans was palpable when they realized that she admired the jazz powerhouse just as much as they did. Without hesitation, Gaga stepped out of the spotlight to let this living legend work his magic. His part of the conversation was a mingling of words and music so fluid that it was hard to determine where one stopped and the other started. One second, he was explaining to the audience how excited he was to perform the standards, and the next, he was telling you to "Sing, You Sinners." His disciplined rendition of "Smile" made everyone in the room — whether 18 or 80 — do exactly that. He rounded out his story with a tribute to the man he called his "very best friend in the world: Mr. Frank Sinatra." It felt surreal to witness his retelling of such quintessentially American stories. I didn't realize just how familiar they'd feel until Tony Bennett filled the whole room with them. 

When Gaga's solo moments rolled around, she floated across the stage in a haze of feathers and jewels with a velvet voice to match. As someone who has spent the last six years travelling the world to watch her perform, I can now tell you that when our Gaga steps out as Lady, something magical happens. Her pop anthems are experimental in themselves, but when she sings jazz, she improvises with every word of every line of every track. There was no plan, no set tempo, no steadfast method. What I witnessed was the powerful conversation that shifts without warning between a jazz artist and the musicians accompanying her. She let the songs take her where they would, with an overall performance that culminated into something immense and inimitable. Her latest iteration of "Lush Life" was softer and more introspective than the album version, giving Billy Strayhorn's story a heartbroken narrator of a different kind. The highlight of Gaga's solo endeavors was a rendition of "La Vie En Rose" so intense you could feel it bouncing off the walls and back again. 

The most powerful conversation happening that night, however, was the effortless exchange between a 29-year-old pop phenomenon and an 88-year-old monument to American music as we know it. With cheeky, ad-libbed versions of "Anything Goes" and "They All Laughed," Tony and Gaga shared a secret conversation of their own that we were just lucky enough to sit in on. When they crossed the stage together, it was as if we needn't even be there. I'm sure they liked performing for us and all, but I got the distinct vibe that these two kids would be just as content belting out "Firefly" together in a low-lit jazz bar as they were doing it in one of New York City's finest venues. And that's when you know you've found the good stuff.