Lady Gaga’s latest album, Chromatica, like most of her albums, creates a fictional world and/or persona for Gaga to use in order to convey important meaningful messages to the listener. In this case, the fictional world is Chromatica! The music video for “Stupid Love” – the first single that Gaga released as part of this new album – begins with text that reads
“The world rots in Conflict. Many tribes battle for dominance. While the spiritual ones pray and sleep for peace, the Kindness punks fight for Chromatica…”
In reviewing this album, I interpret that message as a brief synopsis of the world of Chromatica and what it stands for and represents. Lady Gaga has always advocated for the concept of humans being kind to one another, thus, that part of this message is no surprise to me.
In addition to introducing Chromatica and its lore with the “Stupid Love” music video, I think the music itself in this album has a lot of lyrics that add to that mythology that Gaga has created. One of my favorite songs on the album is “Enigma” (also the name of her Las Vegas residency). Given the title, its definition, and the lyrics themselves, “Enigma” comes across to me as a song about the concept of one not wanting to be easily explained or understood by other people. Lady Gaga has talked a lot about how in her more early days of fame, she constantly felt the need to “shock the world.” I think “Enigma” gave me a better understanding of that deed. At one part of the song, Gaga sings,
“We could break all of our stigma!”
That line in particular is what gave me a better understanding of Gaga’s desire to “shock the world” with all of her eccentric art. It teaches me that she wanted to be an enigma – someone who is not easily understood or who is not smoothly grasped. Overall, “Enigma” is just one example of how this album has taught me a lot about Lady Gaga and her stage persona, as well as how I can apply some of her insecurities to my own self-exploration.
Lady Gaga has also stated on Twitter that she wishes for her fans to listen to it from beginning to end, rather than shuffling through it. This makes sense to me considering all of the mythology that has been developed by her through this album and most of her other music.
Please listen from the beginning to the end, no need to shuffle, it’s my true story. https://t.co/GjJUC3PRWz
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) May 29, 2020
When listening to the album from beginning to end, it really does feel like its own story. That is especially true when referring to the first song, “Alice,” and comparing it to the final song, “Babylon.” I enjoy both of those songs, but when comparing the melodies and lyrics of both songs, it feels like they’re both in the right places within the sequence of the album.
Chromatica is a great album, and I would recommend it to ANY little monsters out there who haven’t listened yet.
Chromatica can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your music.
