Chromatica

Lady Gaga - Chromatica
Critic Score
Based on 33 reviews
2020 Ratings: #389 / 871
Year End Rank: #41
User Score
2020 Rank: #656
Liked by 356 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Albumism

If I had to describe Chromatica in one word, “masterpiece” would qualify. An album that spans a total of thirteen tracks (plus three orchestral interludes) should come with some questionable moments. This one doesn’t.

91
Consequence of Sound

Gaga’s approach, taking thoughts and insecurities that feel personal and private ... and turning them into music to dance to turns our traditional expectations of introspection inside out, as so much good pop music often does.

91
Entertainment Weekly
The album is deeply rooted in the euphoric, synth-soaked uplift of '80s and '90s club culture.
90
DIY
A return to form in more ways than one, 'Chromatica' sees Gaga turning back to the electro-pop dance floor which inspired her earliest hits and restyling it for a 2020 audience.
90
The Line of Best Fit

After stripping everything down on her ballad heavy Joanna, pop’s favourite kink, Lady Gaga, has returned to the electro-pop suite with Chromatica, a record no one could have expected even from someone who so full of surprises.

80
musicOMH

At 16 songs and a mere 43 minutes, Chromatica can feel a tad frenzied, but in the round marks a deft return to Lady Gaga’s club-pop roots, resplendent with much ’90s influence.

80
Evening Standard

Stripped of the pretensions of her third album, Artpop, and the Meat Loaf influences of her second, Born This Way, it’s a non-stop pop rocket into space and a welcome reminder of the unlocked world we once knew.

80
The Irish Times
A star is reborn in this return to fully fledged pop.
80
Louder Than War

Chromatica is her reclaiming her pop crown. It’s vulnerable, it’s free, and it’s undeniably Gaga.

80
The Observer

Chromatica, her sixth album, brings back the spectacle, manifesting a parallel reality she’s had one foot in since childhood, centred on colour, kindness and connection.

80
The Telegraph

Chromatica offers Gaga at her most energetic and forceful, and that is something to behold. But 12 years down the line and after everything we have just been through, it will be interesting to see how many are ready to follow her lead and just dance.

80
The Independent

Chromatic is an extravagant, sometimes even overblown album – but I suspect it will keep revealing itself over time. And by that point, she’ll be onto the next era.

80
The Guardian
Returning to the sound of her maximalist electro-pop heyday, Gaga explores buried trauma, mental illness and the complexities of fame on this return to form.
80
Clash
More than ten years after she burst onto the scene with her Madonna-worshipping, take-no-prisoners maximalist dance-pop, Gaga has finally made a worthy follow-up to the album that made us fall in love with her in the first place.
80
Rolling Stone

Mostly, Gaga has focused Chromatica’s spectrum on the kind of body-moving music that comes naturally to her. Dance music will always be her salvation, and her pop renaissance couldn’t come at a better time.

80
Exclaim!

For more than a decade, Lady Gaga has encouraged us to 'just dance' regardless of the pain hidden deep within ourselves. While she may have veered off from her own advice over the past few years, Chromatica proves that Gaga is back and better than ever.

80
AllMusic

Maybe she's lost her appetite to be a weird provocateur, but she has learned how to sharpen and stylize her attack, and that focus makes Chromatica one of her most consistent and satisfying albums.

80
NME
On ‘Chromatica’ Gaga has fully embraced creating a pure pop album. The record is littered with catchy choruses and glossy production – but it goes deeper than that.
75
A.V. Club
Her choices can be puzzling, and not every song is a success, but that unpredictability is what makes her exciting and leaves us coming back for more. So maybe Gaga doesn’t know who she truly is yet. It’s still enjoyable to watch her figure it out.
73
Pitchfork
With incomparable flair, the pop diva returns to her dance-pop days with a fabulously fun and deeply personal album that is at turns bizarre, theatrical, and ambitious.
70
RIOT

It’s official: Lady Gaga has returned to her club kid roots in her long-awaited sixth studio album, Chromatica.

70
PopMatters
Lady Gaga may be hiding behind a different mask this time, but she's never sounded like she's having so much fun as in this shiny new persona.
70
The Forty-Five

For the most part, ‘Chromatica’ is the perfect antidote to a world ruled by negativity; a voyage into an alternate reality ready-made for enlightened “kindness punks”. Book your seat today.

70
The Sydney Morning Herald

Chromatica mostly succeeds as an engaging celebration amid strange times.

70
The Young Folks

While it might not have the staying power to be revived in whatever post-COVID world people face, Chromatica is at least a sign that Gaga still knows how to have fun. She’s created a wild party for herself in the 12 years since her breakthrough, but she could still get lost with her little monsters rather than hover above them.

70
Spectrum Culture

After the mainstream success of both Joanne and A Star is Born, Lady Gaga could have chosen to go any which direction she wanted next; that she chose to return to her dance-pop roots—and allowed us a better glimpse into her personal journey—indeed makes Chromatica her most personal record to date.

70
The Needle Drop

Chromatica is an enjoyable homage to dance-pop's most classic sounds.

64
Beats Per Minute

She is a very talented pop songwriter and a strong vocalist, but sometimes her ideas sometimes get the best of her, and Chromatica is emblematic of that, in all its highs and lows.

60
FLOOD Magazine

Ultimately, Chromatica is a damn good—not great—album with many imaginative touches.

60
No Ripcord

Chromatica has its moments, but it isn't an album to play on repeat.

60
Sputnikmusic
Chromatica’s main flaw lies in its indecisiveness. Lady Gaga has a number of great ideas on this thing, but the problem is that she doesn’t know how to make them work with any pragmatic fluidity.
50
Slant Magazine
That Gaga continues to mine the same territory, musically and conceptually, a dozen years after her debut suggests that Chromatica’s empress truly has no clothes.
40
The Arts Desk

It is a step away from the likeable pop experimentalism of her last album, Joanne, yet does not, unfortunately, have the sheer dancefloor heft of her albums Artpop and, especially, the bangin’ Born This Way.

Doublez
62

Chromatica gives the impression that Lady is at a crossroads, because we feel at the same time the ambition to make an overly hyper-pop album, but on the other hand it's as if she doesn't really want to play the role of Gaga again.

Whether you like the character and her music or not, Lady Gaga has transformed the pop landscape considerably. It's hard to imagine what pop would be like without her, it's so immeasurable. And I don't think that's an exaggeration. In fact, what I've always liked ... read more

PipePanic
58

And with the bots...comes the fun police.

This is the fun police. I am here to tell you that this new Lady Gaga album could have been better. Stop having fun. This is...not...fun....Stop it......

Oh fuck it, I can't keep the charade up much longer! I liked this album, just a little!

Lady Gaga (even though my relationship with mainstream pop in my reviews has been...negative at best) is an artist that I really do genuinely love. Her presence, her live shows, her identity, her sound and ... read more

_zeltrxn17
40

Even Lady Gaga has a bot clan now? Bruh..

But anyways, to keep it brief: Chromatica is eeeeeehhhhhhh quite bad. Which comes as really sad to me because this album has many admirable things going for it, and it's clear that Gaga really went ambitious with this one.

Mainstream Pop veteran Lady Gaga comes with a new project, relatively fresh off the A Star is Born thingy, and it's honestly what one would expect a 2020 Lady Gaga album to be like. Not to knock her abilities off the table or ... read more

lucidreiji
83

Chromatica I + Alice - 8
Stupid Love - 7
Rain on Me - 9
Free Woman - 8
Fun Tonight - 8
Chromatica II + 911 - 9
Plastic Doll - 6
Sour Candy - 9
Enigma - 10
Replay - 10
Chromatica III + Sine From Above - 8
1000 Doves - 8
Babylon - 9

TheFridge88
75

Album Name: Chromatica
Album Artist: Lady Gaga
Favourite Song: Stupid Love
Least Favourite Song: sour candy
Enjoyment Rating: 7.5/10
Album Rating: 7.5/10

Day 223/365 of my "Album a day challenge"

deyvisonbernadi
100

Melhor álbum da Gaga desde o Born This Way

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Track List

1Chromatica I
1:00
77
2Alice
2:57
79
3Stupid Love
3:13
74
4Rain on Me
3:02
84
5Free Woman
3:11
70
6Fun Tonight
2:53
66
7Chromatica II
0:41
81
8911
2:52
82
9Plastic Doll
3:41
66
10Sour Candy
2:37
77
11Enigma
2:59
76
12Replay
3:06
84
13Chromatica III
0:27
73
14Sine From Above
4:04
74
151000 Doves
3:35
68
16Babylon
2:41
84
Total Length: 43 minutes
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Added on: February 27, 2020