Lady Gaga has arrived unadorned before; over the last couple of years, it has become something of a default mode: her collaboration with Tony Bennett on the album Cheek to Cheek, which won the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album last year, or her Sound of Music tribute at the Oscars the same year. These performances were ostentatious in a different way nude makeup, but makeup nonetheless.
So, on Joanne, she goes on a fishing expedition for inspiration. No pop album in recent memory has featured such a wide array of collaborations that strip those collaborators of their particular charms. Mark Ronson appears throughout this album, as a songwriter and producer, but theres precious little of his reliable funk. Dancin in Circles, a songwriting collaboration with Beck, sounds like a No Doubt demo. Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age plays guitar on a handful of songs, but none with anything close to his usual ferocity. The Florence Welch duet Hey Girl sounds like Motown, but Ms. Welchs singing isnt nearly as brazen as it ordinarily is (though it easily outclasses Lady Gagas).
As a result, her music can seem like an old memory, not a recent one. And pop moves quickly: Note her recent tiff with the club-pop dopes in the Chainsmokers, who said in an interview that they didnt enjoy Perfect Illusion. She responded, coolly, on Twitter, in what felt like a mother dismissing an impudent child.
Which is fair: The Chainsmokers dont see dance music as avant-garde theater or sociopolitical provocation. They see it as quick-stepping pop, which, though its fuzzy in the rearview, is also part of Lady Gagas legacy. That they were allergic to Perfect Illusion makes sense. But instead of taking offense and tossing off a tweet, she should maybe give them a call.