Never the one to do things half-assed, Lady Gaga's greatest strength is also her greatest weakness. Her success has always hinged on whether this ambition ignited her imagination--"The Fame" and "The Fame Monster" remain kaleidoscopic and thrilling listens--or stifled it. "Born This Way" started the trend of Gaga's determination undermining itself, but her excessiveness reached a fever pitch in 2013's "ARTPOP". It tried so hard to marry pop and the avant-garde, that it rarely satisfied both audiences at once. But despite feeling claustrophobic, it was still something only Lady Gaga could make. That's more than what you can say for "Joanne", her 2016 sequel to the affair. Her ferocious work ethic is the weakest link in this frustratingly ordinary album. Lady Gaga finds one rock groove--accented with twang and folk sensibility--and stays relentlessly stays there. She throws in some R&B/Soul--most explicitly and predictably on the Florence Welch assistsed "Hey Girl"--but the entirety of "Joanne" is one track repeated ad nauseam. Even if there are slight changes in the particulars, the overall impression is the same languid beats accompanying the most unimaginative songs Lady Gaga has ever wrote. It's as if she thinks that adding country and adult contemporary alone makes an album great (which of course it doesn't), and she makes glaring errors in her execution because of it.
She has already proven herself to be a gifted vocalist, in range and force, but she, for some reason, feels the need to deliver these songs with the most neck-cringing enunciation she could manage. This is mostly prevalent in the lead single "Perfect Illusion", where 'illusion' is E-LOO-SION and 'love' is LAHVE, but these moments come fast and furious throughout the rest of the album as well. Gaga still has plenty of on-record personality, but she's lost her charisma to the faceless-ness of 90s/modern country. She isn't, nor has she ever been, a honky-tonk woman like Shania Twain or Faith Hill, and even if she truly values Americana and roots-rock, on "Joanne" it feels like she's dressing up in Sheryl Crow and Jewel hand-me-downs. Unsurprisingly, though, Lady Gaga's biggest enemy here, is herself. Her past work haunts "Joanne" like 80s Madonna did in "The Fame". She has done country and rock very well before--"You and I", "Speechless", "The Edge of Glory", "Bad Kids"--but it's actually to "Joanne"'s detriment that it bears so many retreads to "Born This Way". There's nothing fresh here; even if Gaga is still trying so hard to make this record work, the productions, songs, and performances don't have much life to them. They're self-conscious and flat, as is the pretense that she's being more 'personal' and 'honest' than her previous work. Of course she isn't: she's always been a character, someone who's life is fueled by the creative and the artistic. There's nothing creative or artistic about "Joanne": the protest songs "Angel Down" and "Come to Mama" are weak at best, ballads like "Million Reasons" are dull, and any attempt at rock-n-roll ("John Wayne", "Diamond Heart") kicks up dust and grinding guitars but little fun.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with a change of pace, but when the results are as startlingly mediocre as this, you start to wonder why an artist would abandon all of the things that made them a star in the first place. Lady Gaga's detractors may have been right in saying that she could put too much emphasis on garish over-eccentricity for its own sake, but it was her signature, that special quality that allowed her to rise head and shoulders above her peers. But "Joanne" isn't quirky or daring, it's safe and obvious. It shoots so far beneath Gaga's abilities as a writer and performer--as well as Mark Ronson's knack for monster hooks and funky rhythms--that it doesn't really have a reason to exist. At one point, it was endearing to see Lady Gaga trying so hard to prove herself, either visually, artistically, vocally, or musically, but now it's not only tiring, it's embarrassing. What she does next can only come as a pleasant surprise.
Recommended Tracks:
"Joanne"
"Sinner's Prayer"
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