Lady Gaga - Chromatica

Chromatica is a comeback album from an artist who has never gone away and never experienced a dip in popularity. Maybe Artpop provided a dent in her armor back in 2013, with none of its singles dominating the charts or conversation the way the hits from The Fame Monster and Born This Way did, but the album went to number one, as did her 2014 duet record with Tony Bennett, as did 2016's purported country-rock makeover Joanne, and the soundtrack to 2018's A Star Is Born, a smash that also earned her an Oscar for the ballad "Shallow." None of these stylistic excursions can be heard on Chromatica -- there isn't even a ballad that attempts to replicate the surging pathos of "Shallow" -- but they can be felt underneath the diamond-hard surface of this determined revival of Gaga's dance-pop roots. By dedicating the entirety of her sixth proper studio set to club music, she's effectively declaring that she's come in from the cold, but the old-school show biz moves that made her beloved of old-