The rah-rah bitch is back, and we want her stupid lyrics. It’s been a long, rough ride, but we’ve finally made it to Chromatica, and Lady Gaga is back, in full dance-pop form, to welcome us. Her first album since 2016’s Joanne and 2018’s A Star Is Born, Chromatica is a return to the electropop bops that built Lady Gaga’s career on The Fame and Born This Way, after her years-long pivot to Americana and Hollywood glam. With it comes the return of the weird Lady Gaga we know and love — one who can sing about religion, hair, and unicorns on the same album, knowing we’ll eat it right up. Tragically, with clubs closed due to the coronavirus, we can’t dance our hearts out to this banger of an album, but that won’t keep us from wanting to scream out these songs anyway. Here are eight Chromatica lyrics we’re sure you’ll still want to shout after this is all over.
“Alice”
“My name isn’t Alice
But I’ll keep lookin’, I’ll keep lookin’ for Wonderland”
Chromatica opens with a good old-fashioned dumb Gaga lyric that’s just impossible to hate. Of course her name isn’t Alice, it’s Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta!
“Rain on Me”
“I’d rather be dry
But at least I’m alive
Rain on me”
From the first time I listened this song, I haven’t been able to stop hearing Gaga speak-singing “Rain. On. Me.” in the chorus. It’s the first thing I hear when I wake up and the last thing before I fall asleep. And I’m grateful for it. The lyrics that come before are equally golden, too: Gaga explained in an interview that rain is a metaphor for alcohol, and the song is about her flirting with the idea of sobriety. But was rain ever going to kill you? Maybe on Chromatica.
“Free Woman”
“I’m still something if I don’t got a man
I’m a free woman”
I told myself this before quarantine, I’ve been telling myself it during quarantine, and I’ll probably still be singing it on the dance floor after quarantine.
“Sour Candy”
“Unwrap sour candy
Come, come, unwrap me
Come, come, unwrap me
Come on, sour candy”
Sour candy, as Gaga and the Blackpink girls tell us, is a metaphor for themselves. It doesn’t hold up too well — Gaga says she’s “hard on the outside,” but Jennie is “so sweet till I get a little angry.” Oh well. It does make for some good lines about stripping in Gaga’s verse.
“Enigma”
“We could be lovers, even just tonight
We could be anything you want
We could be jokers, brought to the daylight
We could break all of our stigma
I’ll, I’ll be your enigma”
Forget about Christina’s part in “Lady Marmalade” — fighting with your gay friends about who can shout Gaga’s “Enigma” chorus is the hot new post–Chromatica club trend. Make sure you save some of your voice for the call-and-response bridge: “Did you hear what I said? (What?)” Not that anyone couldn’t hear you, though.
“Replay”
“Does it matter, does it matter? Damage is done
Does it matter, does it matter? You had the gun”
I need to speak my truth: Gaga sings “Damage is done”/”You had the gun” in the bridge to “Replay” exactly how she sings “Voo-Don-Na-Na” in “Donatella.” You’ve prepped for this one for seven years, now go ahead and slay!
“Sine From Above”
“The sound created stars like me and you
Before there was love, there was silence
I heard one sine
And it healed my heart, heard a sine”
We need to discuss something about this song — and it’s not Elton John’s feature, because the man can do no wrong. What does Gaga mean by “sine”? Of course, she’s making a play on “sign,” but it’s more than a trigonometry lesson. Some fans have said “sine” refers to sin, but Gaga herself told Apple Music it’s “S-I-N-E, because it’s a sound wave.” The internet tells me a sine wave does come from “sine” in trigonometric functions, putting us back where we started. Safe to say this chorus makes no sense, and we love it for that.
“Babylon”
“Strut it out, walk a mile
Serve it, ancient-city style
Talk it out, babble on
Battle for your life, Babylon
That’s gossip, what you on?
Money don’t talk, rip that song
Gossip, babble on
Battle for your life, Babylon”
Mother Monster really saved the best for last on this one. Blending the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel with the historic city Babylon for an anthem to gossip — that’s what we in the business call going stupid. After you hear this chorus one time, you won’t feel like anything else is worth listening to. It’s not. Babble on, Gaga.