(Source: BBC)

The pop star is back with an explosive new song that nods to her roots, the first single from her upcoming sixth album.

But it also fits the current music landscape.

As a general rule, big pop stars set trends, while slightly less big pop stars chase them. But Lady Gaga’s supremely satisfying new single Illness, released today as the first taste of her upcoming sixth album, highlights a notable exception to her rule.

Sometimes big pop stars ignore trends and focus on what made them great in the first place. The Guardian hailed Illness as a “return to form and classic sound”, while The Independent declared it Gaga’s “best in a long time” as it offers “a strong dose of dungeon-dark electro-pop”.

Clocking in at three minutes and 51 seconds, Illness is an outdated length for a pop single in the age of TikTok and streaming. Today’s professional songwriters are acutely aware that shorter tracks are less likely to be skipped on Spotify (something the platform’s algorithm is primed to detect) and more likely to sync with stylish video content on TikTok.

So there’s a real shrugging confidence to Illness, a song that makes no effort to restrain itself. Who really wants Lady Gaga, an artist who has built her name on avant-garde fashion choices and truly daring performances? , act like everyone else?

In fact, Illness‘s appeal lies in its nods to the dark, dazzlingly maximalist singles that Gaga made a name for herself in the late 2000s and early 2010s. With its bombastic chorus, simple but effective vocal melodies (ah-ah!), and melodramatic lyrics about love’s healing potential—”I can smell your sickness, I can heal you, I can cure your sickness,” Gaga sings in the chorus—it’s a welcome catch and hit in equal measure. It reminds us that he attacked the mainstream by making weird music.

More specifically, it’s reminiscent of the infectiously wild dance-pop approach he unveiled in 2008 on The Fame Monster, a reissue of his debut album The Fame, which was released as an eight-track standalone EP in select territories.

Longtime fans who loved The Fame Monster’s slightly uneven lead single Bad Romance certainly won’t be immune to Disease’s apocalyptic hit.

Gaga co-wrote Illness with Grammy-winning songwriter-producers Henry “Cirkut” Bell and Andrew Watt, who have each worked with everyone from The Weeknd to the Rolling Stones, as well as a lesser-known name: her financier Michael Polansky. engaged. In a cover interview with Vogue magazine in September, Gaga revealed that Polansky shaped the musical direction of her upcoming album by telling her bluntly: “Baby. I love you. You should make pop music.

On this evidence, Polansky’s advice was sound.

Although Illness is something of a musical regression, its dramatic, devil-may-care attitude doesn’t feel out of place in the current musical climate.

This year’s hottest pop stars — quirky anthem producer Chappell Roan, sappy merchant Sabrina Carpenter and edgy agenda-setter Charli XCX — rose to the top by prioritizing personality as much as pop hooks. Gaga is playful enough to drop the line “I’m bluffin’ with my muffin” in her 2008 chart-topping Poker Face, and has been doing so throughout her career.