If you've been following singer, songwriter and actress Lady Gaga for the past three years you know that they've been quite a whirlwind. Even though Gaga hasn't released new music since her fourth album ARTPOP dropped with less-than-stellar reviews, she's been reinventing herself in to a stripped-down real version of who she actually is— a New York girl named Stefani.
In a the post-ARTPOP era Gaga took the control of her career back. After splitting ways with her former manager she released her jazz album Cheek to Cheek with legend Tony Bennett, worked with Vice President Joe Biden to bring awareness of sexual assault on campus, starred in Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story: Hotel as The Countess and won a Golden Globe for the role.
Now, sans theatrics and wacky costumes, she's back with heavy hybrid disco-pop-rock song Perfect Illusion, which was formed out of a collaboration with Kevin Parker, Uptown Funk's Mark Ronson and BloodPop. The song is a detour from any of the cookie-cutter pop on the radio today. Among the sea of songs that sound the same, "Perfect Illusion" is a fish out of water and the best thing she's came out with since 2009's Bad Romance.
Tryin' to get control
Pressure's takin' its toll
Stuck in the middle zone
I just want you alone
My guessing game is strong
Way too real to be wrong
Caught up in your show
Yeah, at least now I know (Lady Gaga)
The raw, stomping song is devoid of autotune that makes you uncomfortable in the best ways. The vocals are stripped of the looming superficiality that has surrounded Gaga since she came on the scene with Just Dance. They show a different girl altogether that doesn't need the theatricals and overly air-brushed vocals. There's a maturity that has grown past the need for popularity in this song that breaks the norm of the emotionless songs that have plagued the radio.
It wasn't love, it wasn't love
It was a perfect illusion (Perfect illusion)
Mistaken for love, it wasn't love
It was a perfect illusion (Perfect illusion)
You were a perfect illusion (Lady Gaga)
Perfect Illusion brings the emotion that was so lacking from ARTPOP.
She's angry, hurt. Her voice is raspy and raw and in-your-face honest. The lyrics are simpler than usual, but in a way it's a good thing because all the focus should be on how her voice sounds because it''s all about the vocals.
Looking at the lyrics, at the surface it sounds like a classic break-up song, but according to Gaga the song delves into the problems with modern day human connections in a world run by social media and technology.
I believe many of us are wondering why there are so many fake things around us ... How do we navigate through social media? How do we look through these images that we know are filtered and altered, and decipher what is reality and what is a perfect illusion? There are also a lot of things on the internet that are not reality. And I think people are pressured to keep that personal illusion going on in their real lives.So this song is about raging against it and letting it go. It's about wanting people to re-establish that human connection. (Lady Gaga)
If Perfect Illusion is any indication where her fifth album due out this fall is going, I think that we are in for some of her best work yet with confirmed collaborations with indie stars Florence and The Machine and Beck.
