What The Internet Is Saying About Lady Gaga’s "Perfect Illusion"
Since I know nothing about music, I turn to people who supposedly do.
September 09, 2016
Frontiers Media:
t’s been a long time since we last had new Lady Gaga music — even if longer if you don’t count her slightly odd duet album with Tony Bennett — but the dry patch is finally over, as she’s back with new single ‘Perfect Illusion’.
It’s a return of her disco-rock sound, with plenty of guitar to match the propulsive beat and synths, all leading to a big, wailing chorus, which pretty much keeps going right through to the end of the track.
For her part, Gaga says the song — which she wrote on a vintage Underwood typewriter, because Gaga — is a commentary on the modern social media world.
Pitchfork:
This morning, after nine nights of near-insomnia, I got up not feeling like complete trash. There’s a new Lady Gaga song in the world, and I have not heard it. I’m going to make coffee, do some stretches, put on a green tea face mask, light a candle (apparently ‘grey flannel’ has a scent), eat a banana, chug some water… OK, yes, my body is now ready for ~“Perfect Illusion”~, ostensibly the lead single off Gaga’s first A.A.P. (after ARTPOP) album. (FYI, the track was co-produced by Gaga alongside Mark Ronson, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, and Bloodpop.)
One listen. Another listen. The creeping dread of having wanted a song to be good—because Gaga’s highs have been high—and realizing it isn’t. Log on to Slack. Start chatting with the only person on, Jeremy Larson, Pitchfork contributor slash personal friend.
Rolling Stone:
To make “Perfect Illusion,” her explosive new single released Thursday, Lady Gaga sat at a piano in Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, with producer Mark Ronson and songwriter Kevin Parker of Tame Impala flanking her in La-Z-Boys. “They hashed out the lyrics for hours and hours,” Michael “BloodPop” Tucker, a Justin Bieber and Grimes producer who worked on the session, tells Rolling Stone. “They started around noon and the sun just went down and they went into the night. Every few days, a lyric would change and it’d get better and better.”
Entertainment Weekly:
It takes only 30 seconds for the chorus to arrive, which on paper is great news—Gaga has written some truly epic sing-alongs in recent years, from hits like “Bad Romance” and “Born This Way” to ballads like “Speechless.” Here, though, the “Poker Face” singer gives away her hand too early. The quick, repetitive hook doesn’t achieve the desired liftoff, building toward a climax that doesn’t come; even with a disco-flavored key change near the end, the song hits its peak just as it’s getting started.
The Atlantic:
At a terse 3:02 runtime, every element seems to have been the result of the songwriters putting the word “INTENSITY” on a whiteboard and brainstorming from there. Josh Homme and Mark Ronson turn their guitars into a revving engine; a high stabbing sound resembling a human scream acts as a siren (possibly from producer Blood Pop); Kevin Parker of Tame Impala pats out a panting, hungry drum beat—one, two, three-and-four. Then there’s Gaga, blubbering like Bruce Springsteen in the verse, roaring like Ann Wilson in the chorus. The hook arrives just 30 seconds in and then takes up the bulk of the song, including in the post-bridge segment where—in a classic climactic move—the key changes upwards.
