"My name isn't Alice" to become a meme please!

My cassettes just come!

first listen with earphones sounded great, will have to hear how it sounds on speakers sometime soon.

 

I do have to agree that the album really should've ended with Sine From Above, that was a much bigger moment than Babylon.

My deluxe CD has arrived and it is stunning :wub: :wub: :wub:

 

Tied with Born This Way for best album booklet :wub:

@1266263531227238401

'Replay' is so dark. My heart breaks for her listening to it. :cry:

07 Alice

09 Stupid Love

10 Rain On Me

09 Free Woman

07 Fun Tonight - incredible vocal

07 911

07 Plastic Doll - lovely chorus

04 Sour Candy - I'll stick to Swish Swish

10 Enigma

08 Replay

08 Sine From Above

07 1000 Doves

09 Babylon

 

A strange album. Some of it is just objectively beneath her - it's faceless, cheaply produced (seriously) and lacking weighty hooks in places. It really gets going from Enigma onwards - Act III is the album this whole record should've been.

 

Free Woman is such a great song that I can just about look past that shitty Kygo circa 2015 (or indeed 2020) drop & questionable production choices, but the demo was better. Sine From Above is very close to being great but again the post-chorus drop is an abomination. This album really needed to not be produced by BloodPop and Burns.

 

Probably her worst album since The Fame (Joanne is not for me, but was well made) but I will use it plenty just because I love her dddd. At least we have Enigma.

Babylon is probably my favourite on first listen. I’m not totally sure what I think of the whole thing after one listen tbh

I just tried to rank it but I don't think I can :lol:

I just tried to rank it but I don't think I can :lol:

 

all of my scores at 9/10 and above, apart from plastic doll which is an 8 :') i can't even begin to think about putting them in an order still oop

I just tried to rank it but I don't think I can :lol:

 

It's VERY hard isn't it? :lol:

Just when I slightly doubt the quality of a track, it sneaks up on me and grabs my quarantine wig!!

Just listened for a second time and I'm not sure I can comment on every track individually but some initial thoughts...

 

There's nothing on here that I don't like individually.

I don't feel like I'm listening to a Gaga album, it feels more like a dance compilation at times although less so on second listen

I don't like how everything is so short. I feel like some of the tracks could have been allowed to breathe a little more. I hate this streaming = short tracks all the time trend

The album it most reminds me of initially is Daft Punk's Discovery. It's all objectively good and a strong direction in sound but can be a little too much in one sitting.

I think it's going to date terribly but for now it's sounds fine

The outro to Sine is way too rushed and jarring. The idea is excellent but it needs to build more and it could have been such a moment!

I like Elton on Sine, I really like the way he's singing from the perspective of his age as it makes it feel more genuine. Gaga has a way of finding the common ground between herself and her collaborators and then fusing it together into something that feels right for both of them.

Babylon is divine *.* but again should be longer!

I like that she's pulled off something different. It's definitely a worthy inclusion to her catalogue, I mean who else could follow Joanne and A Star Is Born with this!

Initial favourites are Babylon, Rain On Me, Fun Tonight, Sine From Above, Sour Candy, Enigma and 911

Free Woman in particular kinda passes me by but that may be because of its placing on the album as it feels weaker than the first 3

I think, career wise, this is a smarter choice of album than the usual pop albums we get from her

Interesting analysis Dandy! It's good to hear your thoughts as always.

 

I think it's going to date terribly but for now it's sounds fine

This i'm not sure about (but i'm willing to eat my words). To me it is in the lane of 'Future Nostalgia' - a modern take on 'Confessions on a Dancefloor' which was itself a modern take on 90s and 80s dance music. For those reasons, I can see this being quite timeless and forever "futuristically retro" if that makes sense? I think this and 'Future Nostaliga' will be major trendsetters for popstars in the years to come.

Yeah I could end up being very wrong! It just feels very of the moment to me - which I'm fine with, I'm totally here for her losing some of that pretentiousness that I adored but the general public hated as ultimately anything that sustains her success can only be a good thing in terms of her maintaining the momentum and backing required to continue delivering epics in future

@1266148985586229250

 

:lol:

@1266233589772939267

 

The taste!

@1266148985586229250

 

:lol:

I SCREAMED AT THIS :rofl:

Wow. Love this. The entire thing is an absolute banger and works great from start to finish. But 100 agree with most that it it is too short, especially Sour Candy.

So many choices for singles though

I do understand why everyone seems to be loving it. It's fun and really does sound like a European dance compilation album from a few decades ago.

 

My main issue with a lot of the tracks is how smooth the production is, and the drops become homogenous after a while. That probably sounds like a bizarre criticism, but 'Babylon' perfectly captures a referential sound without removing the edge with sterile production. I do also wish some songs had more time to breathe and experiment a little more — more moments like the outro from 'Sine from Above' (which could have been extended itself).

 

The lyrics and her vocals are great. She is really playing with her voice throughout the album, and the lyrics are some of her most honest and open.

 

'Replay', 'Babylon' and 'Enigma' are probably my favourites right now. I certainly didn't expect Gaga to create a Basement Jaxx/Sophie Ellis-Bextor/Moloko banger but that is exactly what 'Replay' is.

 

Yeah I could end up being very wrong! It just feels very of the moment to me - which I'm fine with, I'm totally here for her losing some of that pretentiousness that I adored but the general public hated as ultimately anything that sustains her success can only be a good thing in terms of her maintaining the momentum and backing required to continue delivering epics in future

 

I think that is ultimately what is holding me back — which is fine — she's still created a very cohesive vision but I just know she could have gone further.