Like the dual Girls Gaga in its music video—premiered throughout final night time’s Grammy Awards ceremony—I’m break up in two over “Abracadabra.” That Gesaffelstein industrial sound hasn’t been recent or cool since, like, 2015, one facet grumbles, and I do know Gaga has a greater declare to it than most, however why does it really feel like each pop artist proper now needs to do this “ballroom commentator” factor? As a holistic artistic product, “Abracadabra” seems to be a complete lot like a Frankenstein’s Monster of older, higher Gaga songs: the gibberish refrain of “Unhealthy Romance,” the pearlescent bodysuits and shuddering choreography of… additionally “Unhealthy Romance.” However then my different half steps in with an equally legitimate query: When’s the final time Gaga launched a single this good?
It’s been some time. If “Shallow” counts, that’s nonetheless six years in the past, and if not, we’d need to go all the way in which again to “G.U.Y.,” the killer last single from 2013’s much-maligned Artpop. What “Abracadabra” presents upfront is hook after Latex-sticky hook, within the Born This Approach mode, although nearer inspection reveals traces of the decade-plus of inventive reinvention since: a touch of Chromatica within the bubbly home piano, a full-throated vocal flip that’s clearly the product of some severe theatrical coaching. Mayhem, Gaga’s forthcoming seventh studio album, appears to be honing in on that duality: The movies for “Abracadabra” and its predecessor “Illness” each characteristic Gaga squaring off in opposition to different variations of herself—every an impeccably costumed, high-concept affair. She’s nonetheless a minimize above the typical pop star; her actual competitors is the ghosts of Gagas previous.