Ahlgrim: I am the sort of person who really respects Lady Gaga as a vocalist and admires her artistry, but I rarely gravitate towards her albums when I listen to music in my downtime.
Don't get me wrong: I will bounce around and scream every single word if "Born This Way" comes on at a club, and I will defend Gaga's purist pop instincts until the day I die. I'm so glad she decided to reclaim the dance floor, and I'm even more thrilled that such a euphoric album was sparked by confronting and overcoming her demons.
But "Chromatica" stays true to the way I personally vibe with Gaga's songs. I enjoyed it, I respect it, and I can't wait to dance to "Fun Tonight" at a bar in the Lower East Side (whenever New Yorkers can go out again, that is), but I won't be listening to the tracklist straight through on a regular basis.
I have listened to "Rain On Me" approximately 157 times in the past week, however, so she will enjoy a prominent spot on my summer 2020 playlist.
Larocca: I went into this album wanting to love it, and in places I really did — but I also came away feeling slightly disappointed, which may be a byproduct of Gaga putting out most of her best tracks before the album's release.
My favorite Gaga song of all time remains "You and I," so there also wasn't much here for me, unfortunately. That's probably why I was craving some sort of reprieve from the EDM-infused tracklist. But that said, the run from the introductory interlude to "Chromatica II" was an incredible ride through both Gaga's complex emotional state and her dystopian imaginary world. I stand by saying this album was successful for producing the already-iconic "Rain on Me."
Overall, the maximalist club bangers can get tiring if you consume them all together at once, but I'm sure most of these songs are worthy one-off additions to any playlist, and I appreciate Gaga's commitment to a specific vision. I just don't have the bandwidth to live in the world of Chromatica — but I'm happy to take short day trips.
Worth listening to:
"Alice"
"Stupid Love"
"Rain On Me"
"Free Woman"
"Fun Tonight"
"Sour Candy"
"Enigma"
"1000 Doves"
"Babylon"
Background music:
"Chromatica I"
"Chromatica II"
"Chromatica III"
Split decision:
"Plastic Doll"
Press skip:
"911"
"Replay"
"Sine from Above"
*Final album score based on songs per category (1 point for "Worth listening to," .5 for "Background music," .5 for "Split decision," 0 for "Press skip").