Every week, Consequence’s Songs of the Week column looks at great new tunes from the last seven days and analyzes notable releases. Find our new favorites and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Lady Gag’s powerful new pop track will remind fans of her explosive 2010s hits.
Stefani Germanotta, known to the masses as the one and only Lady Gaga, can craft a tear-jerker of a song and deliver music that demands Broadway-level belting. She approaches a jazz standard with the enthusiasm of a plucky ’40s showgirl, and also absolutely nailed the assignment when she did the Super Bowl Halftime Show. 2018’s A Star Is Born, her first major film performance, offered a devastating, fully three-dimensional turn. She can act, sing, write, dance, and produce…but, at the end of the day, Lady Gaga is a pop star through and through.
It’s the most immediate takeaway from her new single, “Disease,” a dark, pulsing, desperate pop track that feels like a return to form after years of Gaga expanding her performance repertoire. When she arrived on the scene in 2008 with “Just Dance,” it felt exciting; when she followed it up immediately with “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” and “Telephone,” it was clear that something serious was happening.
For dedicated Little Monsters, it’s probably 2011’s “Judas” that will come to mind as a primary reference point, and if you’re hearing phantom “ra-ras” here, you’re not alone. There’s a dash of grit to her vocal performance through the growling verses and anthemic chorus. Heading into the bridge, an eerie falsetto begins to wrap its way around the song, which only increases in volume over the layered harmonies until it feels all-encompassing. “If you were a sinner, I could make you believe,” Gaga intones with a hint of anguish, unearthing the sort of religious imagery that characterized her early work.
It’s an interesting time for this sort of return to form from someone who has been a major cultural force since 2008. This is an artist who always commits to the task at hand, whether considering one of her jazz collections with the late Tony Bennett or acting opposite Adam Driver in House of Gucci. All that to say, her endeavors between 2020’s Chromatica and today certainly haven’t felt like half-hearted side quests, but “Disease” is a four minute reminder that pop music is where so many elements of performance have the opportunity to coalesce.
In Gaga’s approach to music-making, she invokes drama and theatrics through song structure and vocal delivery. A music video has yet to arrive, but “Disease” is built for choreography. To her, pop music has never been superficial or easy; the stakes are sky high. And if we can count on anyone to embrace the expansive opportunities this genre offers, it’s Lady Gaga. Welcome home, Mother Monster.
—Mary Siroky
Associate Editor