It’s the moment Little Monsters have been waiting for ever since Mother Monster debuted those bleached eyebrows back in March: new Lady Gaga music from LG7 is here! (Harlequin, the short album she just released, was technically LG6.5, and mostly covers, anyway.) There were teases and teases and teases all year, then Gaga finally confirmed in her Vogue cover interview that the first LG7 single would come out this month, to be followed by the full album in February. “Disease” dropped last Friday, to pretty consistent reviews of it being a “return to form” for our Lady, back to The Fame Monster and Born This Way days. Hot on the platform heels of releasing the new track, Gaga revealed the music video this week, and she took to Instagram to explain how the story in the video sees her “facing myself and my inner darkness.”
In the newly-released visuals, Gaga confronts different versions of herself — some more spooky than others — as she attempts to regain control of her deepest fears personified. Ahead of the music video’s worldwide release, Gaga posted a statement to her Instagram stories about the song’s meaning:
“I think a lot about the relationship I have with my own inner demons,” she wrote. “It’s never been easy for me to face how I get seduced by chaos and turmoil. It makes me feel claustrophobic. Disease is about facing that fear, facing myself and my inner darkness, and realizing that sometimes I can’t win or escape the parts of myself that scare me. That I can try and run from them but they are still part of me and I can run and run but eventually I’ll meet that part of myself again, even if only for a moment. Dancing, morphing, running, purging. Again and again, back with myself. This integration is ultimately beautiful to me because it’s mine and I’ve learned to handle it.”
She concluded stating, “I am the conductor of my own symphony. I am every actor in the plays that are my art and my life. No matter how scary the question, the answers are inside of me. Essential, inextricable parts of what makes me me. I save myself by keeping going. I am the whole me, I am strong, and I am up for the challenge. Happy Halloween.”
“Disease” came out last Friday after hints began to emerge about its release date. Last weekend, fans noticed a pop-up site on Universal Music that posted pre-saves for the single, linking to Apple Music and Spotify. Gaga also published a playlist of past hits on Spotify with certain letters capitalized and lowercase, with the latter spelling out “Gaga Disease.” Fans quickly ascertained that it was pointing to gagadisease.com, which led to a series of websites that revealed some of the song’s lyrics.
Gaga is currently riding high off of “Die With a Smile,” her duet with [Bruno] Mars that released in August. The song has been a commercial juggernaut since its release, currently sitting at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 after previously reaching a peak of No. 3. On Spotify, it’s surpassed 770 million streams, and its official video has racked up 230 million views on YouTube.
Ok, what are our unvarnished thoughts on “Disease,” both the song and video? I think it’s a solid song, and musically I can hear how it’s being likened to her early work. But — and please forgive me Monsters — the lyrics seem kind of basic to me! I feel like when you just listen to “Disease,” aside from her voice (which sounds fantastic), there’s nothing to make you go, “Oh yeah, that’s a Gaga song.” Her imagery used to be very vivid and eccentric. Like on BTW, Highway Unicorn (Road to Love): “They don’t care if your papers or your love is the law/She’s a free soul, burning roads with a flag in her bra,” or “Judas”: I’ve learned love is like a brick, you can/Build a house or sink a dead body. The closest I feel “Disease” comes, is: You’re so tortured when you sleep/Plagued with all your memories. But it’s much more vague, and could be sung by any artist, imo. The video, on the other hand, is pure Gaga! The commitment, the weirdness, the ugly-couture, it’s all there. Though if I’m being honest and persnickety (yet again), the themes Gaga described in her Insta post about “Disease,” reminded me a lot of the way she talked about Chromatica’s “911,” and I do find that video more interesting. To be clear: none of these criticisms mean I won’t be eagerly downloading LG7 when it arrives next year! I judge, because I care.
photos are screenshots from YouTube and via Instagram/Lady Gaga