Lady Gaga is Back, Stronger Than Ever
The long wait is finally over, as Lady Gaga makes her return with the debut of a new music video. Perfect Illusion is an opening to her upcoming album, titled Joanne. Not long after its release, the lead single of her new album climbed to the number one spot in France. Joanne is expected to release on October 21st, 2016. Lady Gaga’s last album was Cheek to Cheek, a collaborative album between herself and Tony Bennett, back in 2014. Gaga revealed that her new album will have her return “to something I’ve believed in so much, which is the art of darkness.” A darkness that fans might not expect from her. Her turning point to focus more on her vocal prowess than the colourful visuals came after the mixed reviews from her third studio album, Artpop which was released in 2013.
The music video is mainly set in a desert music festival (Burning Man?), featuring the Fame Monster herself wildly dancing and belting out her amazing vocals. Her appearance has toned down into the form of a plain tee and shorts combo (those legs though!), a far cry from the extravagant and over-the-top costumes from her Fame Monster days. No colourful wigs or deconstructed headpieces here – for Gaga has gone with simplicity to accompany the song about another bad romance.
Perfect Illusion paints us a picture of sobering up after a roller-coaster relationship gone wrong in all its intoxicating, soul-cripping, and romanticist glory – and how the beautiful horror of it gets to the deepest recesses of our wants and needs. We resort to violent headbanging and limb thrashing as a form of release. Amidst the wild raving, viewers also get to see cameo appearances from the song’s co-producers, Mark Ronson, Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, and Bloodpop – but Gaga remained the star from start to finish.
The suspense eats away at us as we all wait in bated breath for Joanne to finally drop. Be sure to keep an eye out on October 21st! We get to see a side of Lady Gaga that we’ve never seen before.
