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Track-by-Track

Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Grigiot Girls” and “Just Another Day” (Bonus Tracks)

October 30, 2016 by krisis

lady-gaga-in-the-studioIt’s the last of song-by-song essays on Joanne, which means we’re also only a days away from an explosion of music and comics content in November!

I’m in unexplored territory here – the only time I heard this pair of bonus tunes was on Lady Gaga’s release night concert, so I don’t have a week of them seeping into my brain to speak from.

“Grigiot Girls” lies squarely in the pop/country sound, and could have helped anchor the acoustic urges of the LP.

It’s also… a little silly? I mean, pop/country songs tend to be a little silly in their over-earnestness, and this nails it, singing about “tough girls on the mend” who “toss that cork” and call each other up to pour their hearts out over a glass of wine.

(It helps that it comes from such an emotional place – at her launch concert, Gaga introduced it as a song for her friend who is living with cancer.)

On one hand, it’s by far Gaga’s most embarrassing song. On the other, she nailed the sound and sentiment of a country radio tune. You can just feel a stadium full of drunk fans singing along to the chorus of “All the pinot, pinot grigiot girls” while waving their hands in the air.

Part of that is a full-on commitment to the genre; the production here pushes a lot farther than Gaga dared on “Joanne” and “Million Reasons” with its process acoustic guitar sound on the verse and the generic drum loop and accents of piano on the chorus.

I think it was a good idea to leave this song as a bonus track. Delivering anything so squarely country on the LP would have opened up a whole new range of criticisms to be hurled at it. As it is, Gaga uses the genre more as an inspiration than a touchtone.

The real story here is “Just Another Day.”

Holy glamorous Bowie, how is this song not on the mother-loving album?

It’s wonderful! It hits the clanging piano spot of “Come To Mama,” is rife with sonic references to Elton Join like “Hey Girl,” an even adds in a serious McCartney-at-the-piano and Queen aesthetic to the proceedings (it’s a serious soundalike to “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy”).

It’s also one of the best sets of casual, not-trying-too-hard lyrics Gaga delivers on the disc – which is perfect, because it’s a song about being casual and not trying too hard.

Just another way to prove I love you, and it’s hard today
I’ll lay back in my chair and find a way
And when you say that thing that you say that makes me mad
I’ll turn away, I’ll turn away, I’ll turn away

And think of different ways to keep my spirits up
And choreograph hours with playful, joyous thoughts

We both know I could learn a thing or two
About relaxing. Hey, I love you
And after all, it’s just another day

Despite all of those classic sound-checks, the song doesn’t feel trapped in a bygone era the way “Come to Mama” does thanks to some clever flourishes of synthesizer that add to the keys and horns.

How did this song get left off the LP? Sometimes with bonus tracks it’s that the song was sonically too close to another tune or that it would have pulled the album in the wrong direction. I just don’t see that here – this is the perfect one-to-one replacement to “Come to Mama,” and it could have been added before or after “Angel Down” to give the back half of the disc some much-needed pep.

Filed Under: reviews Tagged With: Lady Gaga, Queen, Track-by-Track

Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Angel Down” (Track 11)

October 29, 2016 by krisis

Lady Gaga at the mixing board.We’re just two songs away from the end of my song-by-song essays on Joanne, which means we’re also only three days away from an explosion of music and comics content in November!

This is the end, my friends.

Well, not really, because the deluxe edition of this LP includes a pair of bonus tracks, but this is it for the actual track-listing.

“Angel Down” is Lady Gaga’s most on-the-nose social commentary to date, reportedly written in response to Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012 (which might indicate that this song missed the cut for Artpop).

The song has a grand melody that’s half hymnal, half Friday night drinking song. It’s honestly one of her most distinct – especially the climb on the major seventh chord in the chorus.

Gaga and her collaborators don’t quite seem to know what to do with this bold-voiced but reflective track. It’s scored with big block piano chords, moaning guitar swells, and delicate peals of harp. Gaga sings with a broad, chesty voice that hints at Ethel Merman over occasional wheezes of electronic drums.

The elements pass by in fits and starts, never coalescing into a memorable gestalt. The final song sounds as much like a demo as the “Work Tape” on the Deluxe edition of the album. The Work Tape version sounds much closer to “Million Reasons” – in effect, awesome. Given Gaga’s intent to show many different facets of herself on Joanne I get the avoidance of repeating the same sonic palette, but she did the song a disservice with the actual treatment.

The first verse struggles in the vague, metaphorical area where many of the more sincere songs on the disc dwell, but a strong chorus lifts it out of the muddle. Ultimately the song is only composed of four couplets, further reinforcing it’s hymnal qualities- a unique pair in each verse, a repeated verse refrain, and a chorus. It’s the second verse – the last original lines on the disc – where Gaga finally seems to figure out how to make the vague into something universal, elevating the entire song by association.

Doesn’t everyone belong in the arms of the sacred?
Why do we pretend we’re wrong? Has our young courage faded?

Shots were fired on the street by the church where we used to meet
Angel down, angel down. Why do people just stand around?

I’m a believer. It’s a trial, foolish and weaker
Oh, oh, oh, I’d rather save an angel down
I’m a believer. It’s chaos. Where are our leaders?
Oh, oh, oh, I’d rather save an angel down

On the whole, “Angel Down” is a missed opportunity to show off something memorable, and it’s all down to the arrangement. Given its hymn-like quality, the church references, I feel like “Angel Down” begging for is somber brass arrangement a la New Orleans Jazz or even Louis Armstrong. It’s a chance to connect the country theme of Joanne to Cheek to Cheek to show that Lady Gaga’s transformation here is not so sudden.

Filed Under: reviews Tagged With: Lady Gaga, Louis Armstrong, Track-by-Track

Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Hey Girl” with Florence Welch (Track 10)

October 28, 2016 by krisis

lady-gaga-horse-2016I’ll be dissecting Joanne song by song every day until November, which will bring a monster month of daily music and comics content with it.

“Hey Girl” fascinates me to no end. After over a week of listening, I’m still not sure if I like it or not, but it definitely holds my interest.

The first interesting thing about “Hey Girl” is that it’s a duet and a co-write with Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine. And, it’s a true duet – Florence doesn’t just pop in for a quick featured verse and some harmonies, she is threaded throughout the entire song along with Gaga.

Her presence makes a lot of thematic sense, since this is a song that’s unabashedly about female friends and girl power (and it’s not like Gaga was going to pick Madonna for that spot).

Hey girl, hey girl – We can make it easy if we lift each other
Hey girl, hey girl – We don’t need to keep on one-in’ up another
Hey girl, hey girl. Hey girl, hey girl.
If you lose your way just know that I got you

The other thing that will hit you in approximately 10 seconds of listening is one – maybe two – obvious nods to Gaga’s influences on this tune. (I know this because that’s exactly how long it took both Jake and I to notice.)

The first of the two influences is Elton John, as Lady Gaga is nearly plagiarizing the rhythm section of “Bennie and the Jets” here – a favorite that she’s performed with John! The back and forth octaves of piano that dip chromatically played against a loping drum beat make the songs nearly identical.

The second of the two influences is slightly more obscure, but makes a lot of sense in the context of 2016. The phased, swirling synthesizer sound paired with clean stabs of guitar is a straight lift from the Philly Soul sound of the A-Side of David Bowie’s Young Americans – “Win,” “Fascination,” and especially “Right.” As a major David Bowie fan, I can’t unhear it – you can start singing any of that trio of tunes directly from the chorus of “Hey Girl.”

It’s hard for me to get past hearing the influences to hearing the song. It has a certain flatness to its structure and chord progressions. There aren’t any big leaps or breaks. The songs flows forward like liquid, a particular trademark of Florence’s own work.

That brings us back to collaborations. While Gaga has collaborated with a number of producers and instrumentalists, she’s been much more selective about allowing other vocalists on her tracks. On Fame Monster Gaga’s guest star was Beyonce, who was just cresting her wave of being one of the most revered creators in pop. It felt completely appropriate to see these two women together, creating dancefloor anthems.

On Artpop, the collaboration was regrettably with R. Kelly, as famous for his self-parodying “Trapped In The Closet” as for his pursuit of sex with minors and a litany of alleged child pornography and sexual abuse. While Kelly is also at times an R&B genius, the dissonance of Gaga choosing him as a featured co-star was immediate – especially on a song called “Do What You Want (With My Body).” It was a rare example of her going off-message and being chided for it by the fans and media.

florence-welch-on-horse-with-swordFlorence Welch makes another, very particular kind of statement as a pairing with Gaga. Welch is seen as a nearly infallible, genre-defying female auteur who is mentioned in the same breath with the biggest rock stars.Like Gaga, she was a guest of the Rolling Stones to sing the duet on “Gimme Shelter.” While I didn’t love her last LP, if it was indeed a bit weak it did nothing to slow her popularity or weaken her ability to break through to modern rock radio.

In short – Florence is an image in which Lady Gaga is currently trying to remake herself, much as Taylor Swift veered towards the big tent mega-pop of Katy Perry on her last LP.

Gaga does a brilliant job of fitting into Florence’s mold across this album. And, true to the lyrics of the song, she uses it to lift Florence up – rarely has her vocals ever sounded silken and beautiful, even on her own records. I’d never say Gaga and Florence sound alike, but their voices are mixed so evenly here that it is truly hard to tell them apart at points.

That’s a lot of digital ink spilled on the context of the song without saying to much about the song itself, but for me that’s the thing – the song is all context. It’s a vessel full of ideas about influences, Gaga and Florence’s personal brands, sharing spotlight, and friendship. Its retro sound would feel out of place on the record without “Diamond Heart” as an opener and “Come To Mama” to proceed it, which further justifies that peculiar tune. At the same time, it helps to counterbalance the sexual revolution on the first half of the record with a feminist one.

Eventually I’ll figure out whether I like it or not.

Filed Under: reviews Tagged With: Beyonce, bowie, Elton John, Florence Welch, Lady Gaga, R Kelly, Track-by-Track

Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Come to Mama” (Track 09)

October 27, 2016 by krisis

Lady Gaga from the Joanne booklet, jamming out on electric piano as heard on "Come To Mama"I’ll be dissecting Joanne song by song every day until November, which will bring a monster month of daily music and comics content with it.

Something that gets lost in all of Laga Gaga’s glamorous pop and newly- found country leanings is that one of her major influences is Bruce Springsteen, but you can hear it loud and clear on “Come To Mama.”

She discussed Bruce’s influence during the lead-up to Born This Way, which made sense given the highway sensibilities of the record plus Clarence Clemmons appearing on the Bruce-esque “Edge of Glory.

“My father gave me, I believe it was for Christmas, a Bruce Springsteen songbook for the piano and on it was ‘Thunder Road,’ which is my favorite Bruce Springsteen song. My dad said, ‘If you learn how to play this song we will take out a loan for a grand piano, a baby grand.’

So I remember it was the hardest thing for me. I was playing these huge (classical) pieces, like 15 pages long, … and then there was this Bruce Springsteen song. I opened up the book and there was like chords, guitar chords. I was so confused. I didn’t understand it, so I just started to read it and eventually, eventually I got it down.”

While “Come To Mama” doesn’t have the fine detail of “Thunder Road,” it has the populist aim of Born To Run and Springsteen’s penchant for slick thievery from his own deep list of influences that includes doo wop and 60s girl groups.

Come to mama. Tell me who hurt ya
There’s gonna be no future If we don’t figure this out

Oh, come tomorrow who are you gonna follow?
There’s gonna be no future If we don’t figure this out

The chorus of “Come to Mama” is deeply, deeply Springsteen influenced, with a girl group shuffle full of triplets and boozy sax playing beneath it. Sonically, this is how “You and I” should have sounded like on the record. “Mama” lends itself even better to the 80s rock dressing with a few simple violations of its key signature – a major sixth chord wedged into the verse and the chorus ending on a major-to-minor transition on the fourth.

All of the bombast of the production makes it easy to overlook just how clumsy the verses of this song are. It took me a week of listening before I began to cotton on, and then I had to reading the lyrics to figure out just what was happening. Here’s a sample.

Dude in a lab coat and a man of God (Come onto mama, come on, mama)
Fought over prisms and a forty-day flood (Come onto mama, come on, mama)
Well, I say rainbows did more than they’ve ever done
So why do we gotta fight over ideas?
We’re talkin’ the same old shit after all of these years

If you dig through all of the sax blasts, hand clap snares, and shoutback lyrics, you realize that verse is about if the biblical flood was literal and whether rainbows are magical or not. I mean, this Lady does have a song called “Highway Unicorn,” but this is a little far even for her.

Without knowing exactly what Father John Misty contributed to this track, I’m going to go ahead and blame him for all the awkward parts. “Come To Mama” fits with “Sinner’s Prayer” in having some of the least Gaga-sounded lyrics of all Gaga songs, which are again uncharacteristically nonsensical. The awkward equivocation in the verses doesn’t vaguely match the sharp choruses, which carry Gaga’s recognizable message of positivity and acceptance.

Here’s the thing – it doesn’t really matter. Unlike “Sinner’s Prayer,” which doesn’t have a lot going for it other than its lyrics, this song has everything going for it to the point that Lady Gaga could have just scatted the verses and it would have the exact same impact.

Yeah, the Springsteen sound sticks out like a sore thumb on the record to this point, but the next song softens the blow. Plus, I honestly believe this is what Gaga would sound like today if she was fronting some bar band like mine, and in that respect it’s right at home with Joanne‘s themes of authentic self.

Filed Under: reviews Tagged With: Lady Gaga, Track-by-Track

Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Sinner’s Prayer” (Track 08)

October 26, 2016 by krisis

gaga-bw-nyt-style-mag

Another Lady Gaga shot from the New York Times Style Mag.

I’ll be dissecting Joanne song by song every day until November, which will bring a monster month of daily music and comics content with it.

I’ll admit, I’ve been somewhat dreading making it past “Million Reasons” in this track-by-track dissection. Maybe anything would seem like a comedown after such a phenomenal song, but I feel like the back third of Joanne is unremarkable and not as fully-baked compared to what came before.

Maybe Joanne should have been another 8-track EP masterpiece?

“Sinner’s Prayer” is the most alt-country of all the tracks on Joanne – even moreso than the title track. Where “Joanne” was an all-acoustic ballad that almost defied genre, “Sinner’s Prayer” has several signature elements, like a low, tremolo-fueled baritone riff and the simplistic kick-on-every-beat drums.

This lightweight song was co-written with Father John Misty. Gaga’s past co-writes haven’t had the feel of the feel of the co-writer overtaking Gaga’s own sound, but here that’s the case. The narrative is fractured, the first verse fights with itself, and a cheerful, major-key chorus and bridge that seem lifted from another tune entirely.

That misplaced, low-key chorus might be the best thing about the song. It shows off Gaga’s chesty, alto vocals clearer than any previous song in her repertoire. Unfortunately, there’s barely a hook in there, aside from the “good as, good as gold.” A final refrain takes the chorus up an octave to a more typical Gaga location, but other than selling the “gold” hook a bit harder it’s forgettable.

Hear my sinner’s prayer
I am what I am
And I don’t wanna break the heart of any other man but you, but you
Hear my sinner’s prayer
It’s the only one I know
It sure as hell don’t rhyme, but it’s as good as, good as, good as, good as gold

If some of the rest of the song was an introspective piece that matched up better with the concept of a repentant but unapologetic lover this could have been a subtle antidote to the whore complex Lady Gaga returned to on “Diamond Heart” and “John Wayne.

Filed Under: reviews Tagged With: Lady Gaga, Track-by-Track

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