“In the abstract, Lady Gaga is the last person you’d want to go down the pared-down, real-me, let’s-get-a-bit-country road. After all, the abstract is where Lady Gaga’s from. What business could she possibly have in the dusty, downtrodden ol’ town of Authenticity? But don’t fear that stetson: though ‘Million Reasons’, co-written with country hitmaker Hillary Lindsey, served as potent, sky-clutchin”
“Lady Gaga's rootsier sound and image on Joanne is a welcome change of pace, though she doesn't always commit to the new direction.”
“Joanne is Lady Gaga’s best album in five years, since the disco-stick hair-metal manifesto that was Born This Way. In her quest to master all pop spectacle – hit singles, scandalous TV stunts, The Sound of Music medleys at award shows – Gaga’s been too restless to slow down for albums. Or maybe after she hit it so far out of the park with Born This Way, she figured album-making was a party trick s”
“Now that her peers have caught up to her visual provocations, Lady Gaga seems less like an audacious pioneer than one among many, and Joanne feels tentative, an affront to the Gaga of yesteryear.”
