''Dawn of Chromatica'' is the third
remix album by American singer
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
, released on September 3, 2021, by Streamline and
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
. Consisting of
remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
es of songs from her sixth studio
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
, ''
Chromatica'' (2020), the album embraces an
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
,
hyperpop production and features collaborations with numerous
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
and
electronic musicians.
Gaga's goal with the album was to display her love and support towards younger and upcoming artists. The featured acts include
Arca,
Rina Sawayama,
Pabllo Vittar,
Charli XCX,
Ashnikko
Ashton Nicole Casey (born February 19, 1996), known professionally as Ashnikko ( ), is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. They rose to prominence with their 2019 single "Stupid" with (Yung) Baby Tate, which gained viral popularity on t ...
,
Shygirl
Blane Muise (born May 4, 1993), better known by her stage name Shygirl, is an English rapper, DJ, singer, songwriter and co-head/founder of record label and collective Nuxxe. Shygirl's music incorporates elements of hip house, industrial hip-ho ...
,
Dorian Electra and
Bree Runway
Brenda Wireko Mensah (born 18 November 1992), known professionally as Bree Runway, is an English singer, songwriter and rapper of Ghanaians in the United Kingdom, Ghanaian descent. She signed to EMI Records in 2018 and subsequently released her ...
, while retaining the contributions of
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...
,
Blackpink and
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
from the original album. ''Dawn of Chromatica'' received generally favorable reviews from
music critic
''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...
s, who underscored its
experimental nature. Commercially, it peaked at number 66 on the US
''Billboard'' 200, while topping the
Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
Background and recording
On March 2, 2020, American singer
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
announced that her sixth album, ''
Chromatica'', was to be released on April 10. The album was later postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, though it was eventually released on May 29, 2020. On April 4, 2021, the album's executive producer,
BloodPop, teased the possibility of a ''Chromatica'' remix album, asking his
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
followers to suggest which artists they would like to see on such a project if it were to exist. He later replied to his tweet and tagged
Japanese-British musician
Rina Sawayama, who replied to it with a smirking emoji. He also confirmed he was working with British musician
Charli XCX on a remix of the album's third single "
911
911 or 9/11 may refer to:
Dates
* AD 911
* 911 BC
* September 11
** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001
** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende
* November 9
Numbers
* 911 ...
", and that the remix album would include an early version of "Babylon" that soundtracked an advertisement for Gaga's
cosmetics
Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...
brand
Haus Laboratories. On May 8, BloodPop revealed on his Twitter that American musician
Dorian Electra would be on the album. During an interview at the
2021 Brit Awards
Brit Awards 2021, the 41st edition of the annual Brit Awards, was the UK's first major indoor live music event in more than a year. It was held on 11 May 2021 and celebrated the best in British and international music. Usually held in February, ...
, Sawayama talked about the project, stating that "The wish is on the internet, and I've done my bit, let's just say that. So, it's in the works." She also hinted that the song she was featured on was "
Free Woman".
On May 12, 2021, Charli XCX announced that production for the "911" remix had begun. Later that month, British musician
Bree Runway
Brenda Wireko Mensah (born 18 November 1992), known professionally as Bree Runway, is an English singer, songwriter and rapper of Ghanaians in the United Kingdom, Ghanaian descent. She signed to EMI Records in 2018 and subsequently released her ...
revealed she was involved with the remix album during an interview on ''
The Jonathan Ross Show
''The Jonathan Ross Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on ITV on 3 September 2011 and airs on Saturday evenings following the conclusion of Ross' BBC One chat show, ''Friday Night with Jonatha ...
'', while on August 10, announcing she would appear on a remix of "Babylon" by tweeting out its lyrics.
That same day, Gaga acknowledged the album for the first time, saying that it was "so f*cking " in a tweet, and American singer and rapper
Ashnikko
Ashton Nicole Casey (born February 19, 1996), known professionally as Ashnikko ( ), is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. They rose to prominence with their 2019 single "Stupid" with (Yung) Baby Tate, which gained viral popularity on t ...
confirmed her involvement with the project.
A snippet of her "Plastic Doll" remix was teased by ''
RuPaul's Drag Race'' winner
Aquaria during a DJ set in the weeks leading up to the album's announcement.
During the same period of time, Brazilian singer and
drag queen Pabllo Vittar hinted that she would be featured on a remix of the song "Fun Tonight", and American producer Lil Texas confirmed his involvement by posting a short snippet of his remix of "
Sine from Above
"Sine from Above" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga and English musician Elton John from the former's sixth studio album, ''Chromatica'' (2020). It is included as the album's fourteenth track, and is preceded by a string arrangement, "Chro ...
". Other announced contributors include British musician
Shygirl
Blane Muise (born May 4, 1993), better known by her stage name Shygirl, is an English rapper, DJ, singer, songwriter and co-head/founder of record label and collective Nuxxe. Shygirl's music incorporates elements of hip house, industrial hip-ho ...
and Venezuelan producer
Arca, who revealed to her
Discord fan server that she had remixed ''Chromatica''s second single "
Rain on Me", which features American singer
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...
.
In July 2021, Canadian producer and singer
Grimes
Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...
announced on her Discord that she had produced remixes of the three interludes featured on ''Chromatica''. She mentioned that she initially missed the deadline to submit them to the record label, but later speculated that due to the project's delay, there would be time. However, after the album's official announcement on August 30, 2021, it was apparent that Grimes' contributions did not make the cut.
Although BloodPop previously teased potential release of Gaga's collaborations with late Scottish producer
Sophie
Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise".
People with the name Born in the Middle Ages
* Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson
* Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...
that were scrapped from the original album, none of the songs appear on the remix album.
Talking about the album, Maureen Lee Lenker of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' opined that "while most remix albums are a further celebration of the lead artist's music, the forward-thinking Lady Gaga uses ''Dawn of Chromatica'' to also spotlight some of the recent pop talent that's blossomed in her image."
In an interview with ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' after the release of the record, Gaga said: "I love young artists and support them. All of them on the album have something to say, and they performed their hearts out."
Composition
''Dawn of Chromatica'' contains mainly
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
and
hyperpop sound.
The album opens with "
Alice
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
" remixed by the
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
-based
Philadelphian rapper and producer
Lsdxoxo, who described it as . The second song in the track list, "
Stupid Love", is remixed by the French producer
Coucou Chloe, who "strips away the lead single's
bubblegum beats to reveal a
macabre
In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...
midnight romp".
Arca's remix of "Rain on Me" follows as the third track; she introduces
synths
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...
in the song and samples the songs "Time" and "Mequetrefe" off her fourth studio album ''
Kick I'' (2020), as well as the
Changa tuki track "Mételo Sácalo" by DJ Yirvin.
Rina Sawayama and English producer
Clarence Clarity's remix of "Free Woman" features influences of
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
with wailing
riffs
A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accomp ...
and
drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
fills, which resembles Gaga's 2011 studio album ''
Born This Way''. Sawayama starts the songs saying "let's go Gaga".
Pabllo Vittar's reimagination of "Fun Tonight" consists of
forró
The term forró (*) refers to a musical genre, a rhythm, a dance and the event itself where forró music is played and danced. Forró is an important part of the culture of the Northeastern Region of Brazil. It encompasses various dance type ...
music.
The Charli XCX and English producer
A. G. Cook
Alexander Guy Cook (born 23 August 1990) is an English music producer, singer, songwriter and the head of the UK record label PC Music.
Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah ...
remix of "911" gives a "transcendental" sound to the original version, with an overly
distorted chorus and a new verse with the lines "I look out to
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
and search for a place / And search for a place / And sometimes I hate myself / If it's all getting way harder / Turn it up, party to Gaga."
Ashnikko remixed "Plastic Doll" into a
trap
A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research.
Trap or TRAP may also refer to:
Art and entertainment Films and television
* ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...
version, changing its
mid-tempo composition."
"Sour Candy", featuring South Korean
girl group
A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...
Blackpink, receives a "booty-popping"
club version by Shygirl and the
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
producer
Mura Masa
Alexander Crossan (born 5 April 1996), also known by the stage name Mura Masa, is a Guernsey-born electronic music producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Crossan is best known for his song "Lovesick (Mura Masa song), Lovesick", which ...
, and includes little metallic whizzes.
The remix, however, retains vocal contributions of Blackpink's
Rosé
A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the skin contact method. ...
and
Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to:
People
People with the mononym
* Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam
* Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer
* Lisa Komine (born 1978), J ...
only, removing those of
Jennie and
Jisoo. The album follows with an
EDM remix of "Enigma" by American producer
Doss, featuring "pulsating drops".
Dorian Electra's remix of "Replay" is influenced by metal and features "dramatic vocals" and "menacing growls".
"Sine from Above", a duet with English musician
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
, was remixed by American musician
Chester Lockhart
Crystal Lockhart (born 1997) is an American musician and actor.
Early life
Lockhart was born on April 3 in Riverside County, California. Their mother is from South Korea, and their father is of Danish heritage. Lockhart grew up in a very C ...
, Canadian musician Mood Killer, and Lil Texas. Their version features distorted
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
,
glitched trap
A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research.
Trap or TRAP may also refer to:
Art and entertainment Films and television
* ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...
,
drum & bass
Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...
,
cartoonish
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
sound samples, a
sax solo and finishes with
hardstyle music.
English musician
Planningtorock's turns "1000 Doves" into a
new wave track with
house music
House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
influence.
The album closes with two versions of "Babylon": the "throbbing
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...
revamp" featuring Bree Runway and American producer
Jimmy Edgar
Jimmy Edgar is an American conceptual artist and sound designer from Detroit, Michigan. Influenced by minimalism, Yves Klein and Immaterialism, early in their career Jimmy released two hip-hop glitch albums under the names Michaux and Kristuit ...
, alongside the "sledgehammering" Haus Labs version.
Release
''Dawn of Chromatica'' was officially announced on August 30, 2021, and released on September 3, on
streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
and
digital download formats.
Its
CD was released on November 19, 2021,
while the
vinyl was released in March 2022.
Critical reception
According to
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''Dawn of Chromatica'' received a score of 74 based on four reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Neil Z. Yeung of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
called the album "the daring and liberated sibling" to ''Chromatica'', with "wild, sometimes noisy, and always thrilling reimaginings."
Dubbing it "brilliantly entertaining", Robin Murray from ''
Clash'' stated that "this remix compilation is an excuse to adore Lady Gaga for her abilities as a cultural curator, one of this generation's few – only – true interstellar pop talents."
Sam Murphy of
Junkee
Junkee is an Australian popular culture and news website run by new media company Junkee Media. It covers various topics including film, university, food, TV, politics, travel, career, health and Internet culture. Its target demographic is 18- to ...
thought that the remix album "unlocks the thrilling potential of the original." He went on to draw a comparison with Sophie, acknowledging the "impact she has had on this futuristic brand of pop music.
..The hyperpop movement
..can largely be traced back to Sophie, and all the artists who appear here display some of Sophie's influence."
Wolfgang Ruth of ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
'' claimed that, "filled with
sliving remixes containing sliving features
..this record is, no surprise, next level."
According to ''
Pitchfork'' Jamieson Cox, ''Dawn of Chromatica'' is "less a wall-to-wall collection of club bangers than an expansion of the ''Chromatica'' cinematic universe," and feels "less like a celebration of a world-beating record and more like passing the torch."
Tom Hull described the album as "beats sharpened, persona reduced, like a filter that turns realistic photos into caricatures."
Writing for ''
Gigwise
''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site that features music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England.
History
Gigwise was launched in 2001 ...
'', Alex Rigotti called it "deliciously dramatic pop insanity".
Alexa Camp of ''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' was more critical, opining that "the album is a mixed bag, swinging wildly between
microgenres
A microgenre is a specialized or niche genre. The term has been used since at least the 1970s to describe highly specific subgenres of music, literature, film, and art. In music, examples include the myriad sub-subgenres of heavy metal music, heav ...
and quality from track to track. If the original album favored pop hooks over musical invention, many of the versions on ''Dawn of Chromatica'' are noisy or just plain tuneless."
Commercial performance
In the United States, ''Dawn of Chromatica'' debuted at number 66 on the
''Billboard'' 200 chart with 11,000
album-equivalent units,
while topping the
Dance/Electronic Albums chart. This made Gaga tie the record for the most cumulative number one dance albums and extend her record as the artist with the most cumulative weeks at number one (at 211 weeks). She also became the first artist in history to occupy the top four positions in a single week, with ''Dawn of Chromatica'', ''Born This Way'' (2011), ''
The Fame'' (2008), and ''Chromatica'' (2020), respectively.
Track listing
Notes
*
signifies a songwriter that is only listed on physical editions of the album.
* "
Rain on Me" samples "All This Love That I'm Givin'", written by Jeremiah Burden, Lynn Williams and
Betty Wright
Bessie Regina Norris (December 21, 1953 – May 10, 2020), better known by her stage name Betty Wright, was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter and background vocalist. Beginning her professional career in the late 1960s as a teena ...
, performed by
Gwen McCrae.
* "Replay" samples "
It's My House
"It's My House" is a ballad composed by the rhythm and blues writing team of Ashford and Simpson, recorded by Motown icon Diana Ross for her 1979 album release '' The Boss'', from which it was issued as the second single on 20 October 1979.
Ba ...
", written by
Nickolas Ashford
Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting-production team and recording duo of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946).
Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, ...
and
Valerie Simpson, performed by
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups o ...
.
Charts
Release history
References
External links
Official website
{{Lady Gaga
2021 remix albums
Albums produced by BloodPop
Interscope Records albums
Lady Gaga remix albums
Hyperpop albums